Book of the Week

Week of 5/4/15

Nonfiction
With baseball fever striking, here's a tribute to the game.  The League of Outsider Baseball- Gary Cieradokowski.   From an award-winning graphic artist and baseball historian comes a strikingly original illustrated history of baseball's forgotten heroes, including stars of the Negro Leagues, barnstorming teams, semipro clubs, foreign leagues, and famous players like Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax before they achieved greatness.  Meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated using a unique, vintage- baseball card style, and filled with a colorful cast of characters, this book shines a light into the dark corners of baseball history.  

Fiction

Wonder- by R.J. Palacio- Though published as a childrens book, this book carries an important message for readers of ALL ages - CHOOSE KIND.   "I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse." August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid--but his new classmates can't get past Auggie's extraordinary face. WONDER begins from Auggie's point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community's struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R.J. Palacio has called her debut novel "a meditation on kindness" --indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can't blend in when you were born to stand out. Join the conversation: #thewonderofwonder

Week of 4/27/15

Nonfiction

The Bullies of Wall Street-  In 2008 our country went through a terrible financial crisis, and we are still suffering the consequences.  Families lost their homes, had to give up their pets, and struggled to pay for food and medicine.  Businesses didn't have money to buy equipment or hire and pay workers.  Millions of people lost their jobs and their life's savings.  More than 100,000 businesses went bankrupt.   
    As the former head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair worked to protect families like yours during the crisis by keeping their bank deposits safe.  In The Bullies of Wall Street she describes the many ways in which a broken system let families into financial trouble, and also explains the decisions made at the time by the most powerful people in the country- from CEOs of multinational banks to heads of government regulatory committees-that led to the recession.

Fiction

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time- Though not a new book, perhaps you saw the Group Interp of this last month or have always wanted to read it.   Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind. And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally . The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Tim e is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.

Week of 4/20/15

Non fiction

It started as an assignment.  Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. 
     Martin was lucky to even receive a pen-pal letter.  There were only ten letters, and forty kids in his class.  But he was the top student, so he got the first one.
     That letter was the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives. 
     In this compelling dual memoir, Caitlin and Martin recount how they became best friends- and better people- through their long-distance exchange.  Their story will inspire you to look beyond your own life and wonder about the world at large and your place in it. 

Week of 4/13/15         Nonfiction

Port Chicago 50- by Steve Sheinkin 
     In San Francisco Bay there was a US Navy base called Port Chicago.  During World War II, it was a busy port where young sailors- many of them teenagers- loaded bombs and ammunition into ships bound for American troops in the Pacific.  Like the entire Navy, Port Chicago was strictly segregated.  All the officers giving orders were white; all the men loading bombs were black.  On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked Port Chicago, killing 320 servicemen and injuring hundreds more.  But the truly remarkable part of the story was still to come. 
     Surviving black sailors were taken to a nearby base and ordered to return to the same exact work.  More than 200 of them refused unless the unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed.  The sailors called it standing up for justice, the Navy called it mutiny and threatened that anyone not immediately returning to work would face the firing squad.  Most of the men agreed to back down.  Fifty did not.  
     This is the dramatic story of prejudice and injustice in America's armed forces during World War II, and a provocative look at a controversial group of young sailors who took a stand that helped change the course of history. 

Fiction

As it's National Poetry Month, here are two novels in verse that come highly recommended!

Brown Girl Dreaming- by Jacqueline Woodson
      In vivid free verse,Woodson shares what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s in the North and the South.  Raised in South Carolina and later in Brooklyn, she often felt halfway home in each place, and describes the reality of living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the civil rights movement.  In the South, kids teased her and her siblings about their northern way of talking, and in Brooklyn, being a Jehovah's Witness meant following rules their friends didn't understand.  But through all their journeying, there was always one constant- a deep family love and pride that made each Woodson stand up a little taller and shine a little brighter.  
      Woodson eloquent poetry also describes the joy of finding her voice through writing- something she always loved to do, despite the fact that she struggled in school.  Readers will delight in witnessing her growing love of stories- and her funny, touching experiments in storytelling- as she exhibits the first sparks of the writer she was to become.  
     Poignant and powerful, each poem in Brown Girl Dreaming is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world.
Ringside 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial- by Jen Bryant
          Marybeth, Pete, Jimmy Lee, and Willy never would have believed their small town of Dayton Tennessee would play host to one of the most controversial trials in America- that of their own teacher, J.T.Scopes.  His crime?  Teaching evolution in his high school classroom.  
     Pulsing with energy, the town faces astonishing, nationwide publicity; news reporters and photographers, lawyers and religious leaders, and a flood of curious, souvenir-hungry tourists.  But amidst the circus-like atmosphere is a threatening sense of tension- not only in the courtroom, but among even the closest of friends.  As the whole nation ponders the origins of humankind, beliefs are challenged.  Sides are chosen, and the students of Dayton must decide where they stand. 
     Jen Bryant crafts a compelling novel in poems about an event that had a profound impact on science, culture, and education in America- and a debate that continues to this day.