The next Genre Reading Group will be Tuesday, May 25th at
6:30pm on Zoom and there is no
assigned topic. Read, watch, or listen
to whatever you’d like, and come tell us about it! For more information, call or email Holley at
205-445-1117 or hwesley@oneallibrary.org. Register your email to participate: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/4597969
Last night, GRG met to discuss international authors, so
prepare for a trip around the world!
It’s
Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian
Of all the women and men Noni Blake has pleased in her life,
there’s one she’s often overlooked—herself. After the end of a decade-long
relationship, Noni decides it’s time for that to change. She’s finally going to
prioritize her wants and desires and only do things (and people) that feel good
in the moment. As she embarks on a pleasure-seeking quest that takes her
halfway around the world, she discovers that maybe she can have everything, and
everyone, she’s ever wanted.
Effortlessly hilarious and relatable, Claire Christian spins a fresh, uplifting
story about starting over as a thirtysomething woman who’s been living life for
everyone else. A story of self-discovery for the ages, Noni’s journey serves as
a reminder that life is what we make of it—so why not enjoy it?
Butter
Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
Spanning three continents, Butter Honey Pig Bread tells
the interconnected stories of three Nigerian women: Kambirinachi and her twin
daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi believes that she is an Ogbanje, or
an Abiku, a non-human spirit that plagues a family with misfortune by being
born and then dying in childhood to cause a human mother misery. She has made
the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family but lives in
fear of the consequences of her decision.
Kambirinachi and her two daughters become estranged from one another because of
a trauma that Kehinde experiences in childhood, which leads her to move away
and cut off all contact. She ultimately finds her path as an artist and seeks
to raise a family of her own, despite her fear that she won’t be a good mother.
Meanwhile, Taiye is plagued by guilt for what her sister suffered and also runs
away, attempting to fill the void of that lost relationship with casual flings
with women. She eventually discovers a way out of her stifling loneliness
through a passion for food and cooking.
But now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have
returned home to Lagos. It is here that the three women must face each other
and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward. For
readers of African diasporic authors such as Teju
Cole and Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie, Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of
choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between
the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of
voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all,
family.
One
World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories
This book is made up of twenty-three stories, each from a
different author from across the globe. All belong to one world, united in
their diversity and ethnicity. And together they have one aim: to involve and
move the reader. The range of authors takes in such literary greats as Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie and Jhumpa
Lahiri, and emerging authors such as Elaine Chiew, Petina
Gappah, and Henrietta
Rose-Innes.
Summerwater
by Sarah Moss
At daylight, a mother races up the mountain, fleeing into
her precious dose of solitude. A retired man studies her return as he
reminisces about the park’s better days. A young woman wonders about his
politics as she sees him head for a drive with his wife, and tries to find a
moment away from her attentive boyfriend. A teenage boy escapes the scrutiny of
his family, braving the dark waters of the loch in a kayak. This cascade of
perspective shows each wrapped up in personal concerns, unknown to each other,
as they begin to notice one particular family that doesn’t seem to belong.
Tensions rise, until nightfall brings an irrevocable turn.
Crimson
Lake by Candice Fox
Six minutes in the wrong place at the wrong time―that’s all
it took to ruin Sydney detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not
convicted of a brutal abduction, Ted is now a free man―and public enemy number
one. Maintaining his innocence, he flees north to keep a low profile amidst the
steamy, croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake.
There, Ted’s lawyer introduces him to eccentric private investigator Amanda
Pharrell, herself a convicted murderer. Not entirely convinced Amanda is a
cold-blooded killer, Ted agrees to help with her investigation, a case full of
deception and obsession, while secretly digging into her troubled past. The
residents of Crimson Lake are watching the pair's every move . . . and the town
offers no place to hide.
Boyfriend
Material by Alexis Hall
Luc O'Donnell is tangentially―and reluctantly―famous. His
rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he's never met spent
the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his dad's making a
comeback, Luc's back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to
ruin everything.
To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal
relationship...and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He's a
barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he's never inspired a moment of scandal
in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately, apart from
being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc
and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be
publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can
go their separate ways and pretend it never happened. But the thing about
fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating. And that's when you get
used to someone. Start falling for them. Don't ever want to let them go.
Devotion
of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had
finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to
extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato,
the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her
apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko's nextdoor neighbor,
middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help,
disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step.
When the body turns up and is identified, Detective Kusanagi
draws the case and Yasuko comes under suspicion. Kusanagi is unable to find any
obvious holes in Yasuko's manufactured alibi and yet is still sure that there's
something wrong. What ensues is a high-level battle of wits, as the suspects
try to outmaneuver and outthink Yukawa, who faces his most clever and
determined opponent yet.
The
Long Call by Ann Cleeves
In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the
sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father’s
funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community
he grew up in, he lost his family too.
Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call
from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a
tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew
back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their
hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with
the world he thought he’d left behind.
Jade
Dragon Mountain by Elsa Hart
Li Du was an imperial librarian. Now, he is an exile.
Arriving in Dayan, the last Chinese town before the Tibetan border, he is
surprised to find it teeming with travelers, soldiers, and merchants. All have
come for a spectacle unprecedented in this remote province: an eclipse of the
sun commanded by the Emperor himself. When a Jesuit astronomer is found
murdered in the home of the local magistrate, blame is hastily placed on
Tibetan bandits. But Li Du suspects this was no random killing.
Everyone has secrets: the ambitious magistrate, the powerful
consort, the bitter servant, the irreproachable secretary, the East India
Company merchant, the nervous missionary, and the traveling storyteller who
can't keep his own story straight. Beyond the sloping roofs and festival
banners, Li Du can see the mountain pass that will take him out of China
forever. He must choose whether to leave and embrace his exile, or to stay and
investigate a murder that the town of Dayan seems all too willing to forget.
French
Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure by Mireille
Guiliano
From the author of French
Women Don't Get Fat, the #1 National Bestseller, comes an essential guide
to the art of joyful living—in moderation, in season, and, above all, with
pleasure.
Peaches
for Father Frances by Joanne Harris
Even before it was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film
starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, Joanne Harris’s Chocolat entranced
readers with its mix of hedonism, whimsy, and, of course, chocolate. Now, at
last, Chocolat’s heroine returns to the beautiful French village of
Lansquenet in another, equally beguiling tale.
When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice
but to return to Lansquenet, where she once owned a chocolate shop and learned
the meaning of home. But returning to one’s past can be a dangerous pursuit,
and Vianne and her daughters find the beautiful French village changed in
unexpected ways: women veiled in black, the scent of spices in the air,
and—facing the church—a minaret. Most surprising of all, her old nemesis,
Francis Reynaud, desperately needs her help. Can Vianne work her magic once
again?
The Unadoptables
by Hana Tooke
In all the years that Elinora Gassbeek has been matron of
the Little Tulip Orphanage, not once have the Rules for Baby Abandonment been
broken. Until the autumn of 1880, when five babies are left in outrageous
circumstances; one in a tin toolbox, one in a coal bucket, one in a picnic
hamper, one in a wheat sack, and finally, one in a coffin-shaped basket. Those
babies were Lotta, Egg, Fenna, Sem, and Milou. And although their cruel matron
might think they're "unadoptable," they know their individuality is
what makes them special--and so determined to stay together.
When a most sinister gentleman appears and threatens to tear them apart, the
gang make a daring escape across the frozen canals of Amsterdam. But is their
real home--and their real family--already closer than they realize?
Catherine’s
War by Julia Billet
A magnificent narrative inspired by a true survival story
that asks universal questions about a young girl’s coming of age story, her
identity, her passions, and her first loves.
At the Sèvres Children’s Home outside Paris, Rachel Cohen
has discovered her passion—photography. Although she hasn’t heard from her
parents in months, she loves the people at her school, adores capturing what
she sees in pictures, and tries not to worry too much about Hitler’s war. But
as France buckles under the Nazi regime, danger closes in, and Rachel must
change her name and go into hiding.
As Catherine Colin, Rachel Cohen is faced with leaving
the Sèvres Home—and the friends she made there—behind. But with her beautiful
camera, Catherine possesses an object with the power to remember. For the rest
of the war, Catherine bears witness to her own journey, and to the countless
heroes whose courage and generosity saved the lives of many, including her
own.
Based on the author’s mother’s own experiences as a hidden
child in France during World War II, Catherine’s War is one of the
most accessible historical graphic novels featuring a powerful girl since Persepolis by
Marjane Satrapi—perfect for fans of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief,
Anne Frank, or Helen Keller.
The
Cook by Maylis de Kerangal
More like a poetic biographical essay on a fictional person
than a novel, The Cook is a coming-of-age journey centered on
Mauro, a young self-taught cook. The story is told by an unnamed female
narrator, Mauro’s friend and disciple who we also suspect might be in love with
him. Set not only in Paris but in Berlin, Thailand, Burma, and other far-flung
places over the course of fifteen years, the book is hyperrealistic―to the
point of feeling, at times, like a documentary. It transcends this simplistic
form, however, through the lyricism and intensely vivid evocative nature of
Maylis de Kerangal’s prose, which conjures moods, sensations, and flavors, as
well as the exhausting rigor and sometimes violent abuses of kitchen work.
In The Cook, we follow Mauro as he finds his path in life: baking
cakes as a child; cooking for his friends as a teenager; a series of studies,
jobs, and travels; a failed love affair; a successful business; a virtual
nervous breakdown; and―at the end―a rediscovery of his hunger for cooking, his
appetite for life.
Born
a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to
the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth.
Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when
such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his
parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of
his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to
hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally
liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his
mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing
the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
One of Oprah’s Best Books of the Year and a PEN/Hemingway
award winner, Homegoing follows the parallel paths of two
sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to
the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem.
Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for
those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity
has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.
The
Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela, edited by Sahm Venter
Arrested in 1962 as South Africa’s apartheid regime
intensified its brutal campaign against political opponents,
forty-four-year-old lawyer and African National Congress activist Nelson
Mandela had no idea that he would spend the next twenty-seven years in jail. During
his 10,052 days of incarceration, the future leader of South Africa wrote a
multitude of letters to unyielding prison authorities, fellow activists,
government officials, and, most memorably, to his courageous wife, Winnie, and
his five children. Now, 255 of these letters, many of which have never been
published, provide exceptional insight into how Mandela maintained his inner
spirits while living in almost complete isolation, and how he engaged with an
outside world that became increasingly outraged by his plight.
A
Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General
Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of
thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the
French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life
intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her
deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of
them desires.
Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark for Chile on
the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda: “the long
petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, the couple embraces
exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new
continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they
patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of
returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between
freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will
find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.
The
Devil’s Dance by Hamid Ismailov
The Devils' Dance brings to life the
extraordinary culture of 19th century Turkestan, a world of lavish poetry
recitals, brutal polo matches, and a cosmopolitan and culturally diverse Islam
rarely described in western literature. Hamid Ismailov's virtuosic prose
recreates this multilingual milieu in a digressive, intricately structured
novel, dense with allusion, studded with quotes and sayings, and threaded
through with modern and classical poetry.
With this poignant, loving resurrection of both a culture and a literary canon
brutally suppressed by a dictatorship which continues today, Ismailov
demonstrates yet again his masterful marriage of contemporary international
fiction and the Central Asian literary traditions, and his deserved position in
the pantheon of both.
GENERAL DISCUSSION:
The Mildred L.
Batchelder award
The Batchelder Award is awarded to a United States publisher
for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books
originating in a country other than the United States and in a language other
than English and subsequently translated into English for publication in the
United States during the preceding year.
Ghost
Wall by Sarah Moss
For two weeks, the length of her father’s vacation, Silvie
and her family join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times,
surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age. They are surrounded by
forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted
rabbit. The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie’s father is
fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man,
taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and
beliefs―particularly their sacrifices to the bog. Mixing with the students,
Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might
include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes
and food, speaking her mind.
The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude
barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of
their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but
human sacrifice? A story at once mythic and strikingly timely, Sarah Moss’s Ghost
Wall urges us to wonder how far we have come from the “primitive
minds” of our ancestors.
Blackberry
Wine by Joanne Harris
As a boy, writer Jay Mackintosh spent three golden summers
in the ramshackle home of "Jackapple Joe" Cox. A lonely child, he
found solace in Old Joe's simple wisdom and folk charms. The magic was lost,
however, when Joe disappeared without warning one fall.
Years later, Jay's life is stalled with regret and ennui.
His bestselling novel, Jackapple Joe, was published ten years
earlier and he has written nothing since. Impulsively, he decides to leave his
urban life in London and, sight unseen, purchases a farmhouse in the remote
French village of Lansquenet. There, in that strange and yet strangely familiar
place, Jay hopes to re-create the magic of those golden childhood summers. And
while the spirit of Joe is calling to him, it is actually a similarly haunted,
reclusive woman who will ultimately help Jay find himself again.
Five
Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks
of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous
woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years
ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a
scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother.
And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the
tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year.
The
Heart by Maylis de Kerangal
The book is the basis for the critically-acclaimed
film, Heal
the Living, directed by Katell Quillévéré and starring Tahar
Rahim and Emmanuelle Seigner.
The Heart takes place over the twenty-four hours
surrounding a heart transplant, as life is taken from a young man and given to
a woman close to death. In gorgeous, ruminative prose, it examines the deepest
feelings of everyone involved as they navigate decisions of life and death. As
stylistically audacious as it is emotionally explosive, The Heart mesmerized
readers in France, where it has been hailed as the breakthrough work of a new
literary star. With the precision of a surgeon and the language of a poet, de
Kerangal has made a major contribution to both medicine and literature with an
epic tale of grief, hope, and survival.
Painting
Time by Maylis de Kerangal
An enchanted, atmospheric, and highly aesthetic
coming-of-age novel, Painting Time is an intimate and
unsparing exploration of craft, inspiration, and the contours of the
contemporary art world. As
she did in her acclaimed novels The Heart and The
Cook, Maylis de Kerangal unravels a tightly wound professional world to
reveal the beauty within.
The
Water Mirror by Kai Meyer
Learning about the threat that will destroy the world in
which she lives, fourteen-year-old Merle, an orphan girl protected by the
Flowing Queen and apprenticed by a magic mirror maker, heads off on a perilous
journey to use her magic to put a stop to all those involved in this
fantastical tale set in Venice, Italy.
Transcendent
Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait
of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and
grief—a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written,
emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's
phenomenal debut.
House
of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The House of the Spirits, the unforgettable first
novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the world’s most gifted
storytellers, brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of
the Trueba family. One of the most important novels of the twentieth
century, The House of the Spirits is an enthralling epic that
spans decades and lives, weaving the personal and the political into a
universal story of love, magic, and fate.
…and a book I meant to tell everyone about but forgot, Animalia
by Jean-Baptiste del Amo
A dramatic and chilling tale of man and beast that recalls
the naturalism of writers like Émile
Zola, Animalia traverses the twentieth century as it
examines man’s quest to conquer nature, critiques the legacy of modernity and
the transmission of violence from one generation to the next, and questions
whether we can hold out hope for redemption in this brutal world.
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