Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close
Bud and Rose Sullivan founded the family restaurant, JP Sullivans in 1979, and in 2016 on the cusp of a great upheaval in American politics and in the midst of another angst-ridden go at the World Series by their beloved Chicago Cubs, the elder Sullivans are ready to retire and pass on the restaurant to their children. But will they want it?
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Bonnie Garmus has created characters that mock convention. Elizabeth Zott defies authority, not on principal, but on practicality. She sees the world through safety goggles while her male counterparts just wish she’d put on the rose-colored glasses, form-fitting Donna-Reed dress, and sell the canned soup on Supper at Six. But everything in Elizabeth’s world boils down to science – including making her coffee at home with a Bunsen burner and turning her home kitchen into a lab. You’ll fall in love with her dog, Six-Thirty, one of the most astute and intelligent four-legged narrators in fiction today; Mad, her precocious daughter, who reads Nabokov at the age of five, and interrupts show and tell to ask her kindergarten teacher how she can join the Freedom Fighters in Nashville; and her friend and neighbor Harriet, whom after watching Elizabeth stand up to injustice, finds the courage to leave her alcoholic and abusive husband.
Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope through Healing the Planet by Kinari Webb
The summer after graduating from college, Kinari Webb traveled to Indonesia Borneo to study orangutans but after witnessing the devastating effects of deforestation in the region, and realizing that it was negatively effecting the health of the community, she enrolled at Yale School of Medicine to become a doctor. Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet, is Webb's memoir about her efforts to mitigate climate change and provide affordable health care to the people of Indonesia Borneo.
Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma by Galit Atlas
"We realize that trauma can be transmitted to the next generation but also that psychological work can alter and modify the biological effects of trauma."
Jordermoder: Poems of a Midwife by Ingrid Andersson
Andersson understands that life turns on passion, as much as breath. It is this capability, this lesson learned at her mother’s elbow and reinforced at the dovetail of delivery, that makes Andersson’s tender poems linger.
The Last Bookseller, A Life in the Rare Book Trade
One of the most delightful aspects of Goodman’s book is the footnotes. If you buy the book for nothing but the footnotes, it’s a dollar well spent. They’re hilarious and snarky and reveal more about the author than the subject. For both bibliophiles and booksellers, THE LAST BOOKSELLER is a must read. With humor and great affection, Goodman invites us in for a look behind the curtain before it closes for the last time.
The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
Ken Follett is the massively successful author of 36 books – selling over 178 million copies worldwide. He writes thrillers and mysteries but his most popular books are the Pillars of the Earth Trilogy. That first book, PILLARS OF THE EARTH, was published in 1989 was about the building of a medieval cathedral. It was number one on best-seller lists everywhere and turned into a major television series in 2010. Full disclosure: I have not read the trilogy – HOWEVER, I did just read the prequel to the Pillars of the Earth that came out in September 2021: THE EVENING AND THE MORNING. The prequel is set in the Dark Ages, which may explain my following comments.
Groundskeeping by Lee Cole
GROUNDSKEEPING is about that messy time in young adulthood when you are deciding what to pack up from your old life to bring into your new life. Cole’s writing belies that of a debut novelist. His characters are complicated and nuanced; their relationships are messy and there are no easy answers. Just like in real life.
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
From the award-winning author of WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE and THE BHUDDA IN THE ATTIC, comes a slim, powerhouse of a novel about loss of identity. In shifting points of view, Julie Otsuka gives us an intuitive look at what it means to lose someone you love to dementia. Brilliant, reflective, compressed, nuanced, empathetic, and global yet intimate, THE SWIMMERS tells the story of a group of obsessed recreational swimmers and what happens to them when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool.
The Leopard is Loose by Stephen Harrigan
In Stephen Harrigan’s big-hearted coming-of-age novel, LEOPARD IS LOOSE, five-year-old Grady’s tranquil world is upended when a leopard escapes from the nearby zoo. It’s 1952 and Grady and his 7-year-old brother Danny live with their widowed mother, Bethie, in a two-bedroom backyard apartment across a small patch of yard from her parents and siblings. For most of Grady’s life, the family compound has created a sanctuary where they could each heal from the devastating trauma of the war.
3 AM Austin Texas by Klecko
Sometimes the only way to recover from bad choices is to leave them behind, and that’s what Klecko did. His newest poetry collection, 3AM AUSTIN TEXAS, is subtitled Boy on the Run, and it’s an account of a painful time in his life – a time when he hitchhiked from Minnesota to Texas in the middle of winter in search of himself. Along the way, he experienced excruciating cold, hunger, and loneliness. The little things helped: ride, a meal, a twenty-dollar bill, a Pepsi, a book, and even a prayer. But mostly he had to muscle through it.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Erdrich has written another masterpiece. THE SENTENCE is a compelling read that serves as a time capsule. Maybe one day we will look back and remember the Summer of 2020 – not just as a period of loss and trauma – but as the antidote to it. E.B. White famously wrote that a writer must not only reflect and interpret the world but must also sound the alarm. THE SENTENCE does just that.
Reeling by Sarah Stonich
Stonich has a gift for revealing vulnerability in the most unlikely places. RayAnne’s first interview in New Zealand is with Ellie Mann, a tough-talking, tuna trawler captain who puts her to work throwing bait out the back of the boat. Donning a helmet with a visor to protect her from the fish frenzy that follows, RayAnne feels an unfamiliar squeamishness at reaching into a pail of live bait.
We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, Edited by Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura
At the dawn of summer 2020, with the world spinning from the Covid 19 pandemic, Minneapolis went into a nose dive after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. In the weeks and months that followed, Minneapolis became the epicenter of worldwide demands for justice. In a compelling new collection, WE ARE MEANT TO RISE, edited by Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura, Indigenous writers and writers of color bear witness to one of the most unsettling years in the history of the United States.
Pencilvania by Stephanie Watson, Illustrated by Sofia Moore
Watson has a keen understanding of childhood grief. Her shimmering descriptions of Zora’s artful world and the animals that inhabit it are brought to life by Moore’s illustrations. Zora’s pain is palpable and may be overwhelming for sensitive readers, but her fierce devotion to her sister Frankie, coupled with her courage in the face of grief, will inspire young artists and encourage readers who have faced similar losses and challenges. The message of the power of love and art to heal the brokenhearted will transcend all generations.
Opioid Reckoning - Love, Loss, and Redemption in the Rehab State by Amy C. Sullivan, PhD
Dr. Sullivan’s work on behalf of addiction and treatment is remarkable and Opioid Reckoning offers a glimpse into the faces of the epidemic. With heart and soul and considerable scholarship, Sullivan has written a book that offers hope and help for anyone affected by addiction.
Somebody's Daughter, A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford
SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER is a heartbreaking story about a girl growing up in poverty, famished for love and acceptance, searching for an identity outside of the broken family she’d grown up in. But rather than remaining a victim, Ashley C. Ford becomes the heroine of her story, and the only one she needed to save her, was herself.
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
RED AT THE BONE is a compact novel of trauma and recovery, and all the messiness in between.
Lincolnland by Danny Klecko
LINCOLNLAND reads more like a diary than a poem. Klecko’s mind impresses. One discovery, leads to another discovery, to another state, phone call, book, or letter.