January Audiobook of the Month

You may have noticed I didn't blog about an audiobook of the month in December. That was because I tweeted about four during #libfaves16; the narrators are highlighted in my December posts. 

I am back on track for January 2017 with a great narrative nonfiction selection that reads like an adventure story. If you enjoy history and biography click on the For Listeners tab to check it out and don't forget to scroll down the page to find other audiobook suggestions.

Titles to Watch for NEXT WEEK: August 23-29, 2015

Forthcoming titles which may be of interest ...

ADULT FICTION

The Fall of Princes by Robert Goolrick - "In a compelling, wholly seductive narrative voice, Rooney tells of his high-flying days as a Wall Street trader during the 1980's; however, his fall is as precipitous as his rise, and he recounts his days of great wealth and even greater excess with both wistfulness and regret, never failing to mention the people he hurt along the way." (Booklist review, June 2015)

A Good Family by Erik Fassnacht - "Fassnacht's debut works as a read-alike for both Jennifer Weiner and Jonathan Franzen for the way it so convincingly melds domestic drama, suburban angst, and beautifully descriptive writing." (Booklist review, July 2015)

• Fantasy 

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore - "In San Francisco, the souls of the dead are mysteriously disappearing and you know that can't be good in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore's delightfully funny sequel to A Dirty Job" (HarperCollins, publisher)

• Historical Fiction

Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig - "Raised in the mid-1950's by his beloved grandmother in Montana's Two Medicine Country, orphaned Donal Kyle fells as if he's been tossed into cold water when Gram, recovering from surgery, sends him to live with her bossy and mean-spirited sister in Wisconsin. Aunt Kate is so put out with Kyle that she sends him back, to be placed in the custody of the authorities. Gratifyingly, though, Kate's harassed husband slips away to join him." (Library Journal review, March 2015)

• Mystery

Last Ragged Breath by Julia Keller (A Bell Elkin mystery)  - "A beautifully craftey mystery in which Keller (Summer of the Dead, 2014, etc.) explores love, hate, and poverty in a place of stunning natural beauty with pockets of overwhelming ugliness. The ending may leave you in tears." (Kirkus Reviews, June 2015)




Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny (A Chief Inspector Gamache novel) - "A strong sense of place, a multilayered plot, and well-crafted (and for Penny's fans, familiar) characters combine for a thoughtful, intriguing tale. More than a simple mystery, Penny's novel peels away the emotional and psychological layers of the inhabitants of Three Pines." (LJ Reviews, July 2015)


X by Sue Grafton - " ... features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton waste little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim." (Penguin Putnam, publisher)

• Suspense Thriller

 Iron Wolf by Dale Brown - "The first woman president of the United States is tested by a Russian invasion of Ukraine and Moldova that compel a previous U.S. president to organize a radical counterattack involving manned robot soldiers." (NoveList annotation)

• Women's Fiction

If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins - "A divorced wedding-dress designer tries to extricate herself from her ex-husband's new life by moving from Manhattan to her suburban hometown, just in time to see her sister's marriage rocked by a sexually graphic text." (Kirkus Reviews, July 2015)

A Window Opens: A Novel by Elisabeth Egan - "... Elisabeth Egan brings us Alice Pearse, a compulsively honest, longing-to-have-it-all, sandwich generation heroine for our social-media-obsessed, lean in (or opt out) age. Like her fictional forebears Kate Reddy and Bridget Jones, Alice plays many roles (which she never refers to as "wearing many hats" and wishes you wouldn't, either)." (Simon and Schuster, publisher)

ADULT NONFICTION 

Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots by John Markoff - "...New York Times reporter John Markoff, the first reporter to cover the World Wide Web, offers a sweeping history of the complicated and evolving relationship between humans and computers." (HarperCollins, publisher)


Rising Strong by Brené Brown, Ph.D. - " Brené Brown isn’t a spiritual guru, or someone who’s risen from the ashes to tell us how to live our lives. She’s a researcher. And Rising Strong isn’t some feel-good-get-over-it regimen; it’s more investigative reporting on the common denominators of people who whole-heartedly get back up and go another round after getting their asses handed to them in big and small ways." (Amazon Best Books of August 2015 review)

• Biography / Memoir

The Face That Changed It All: A Memoir by Beverly Johnson - "Featuring stunning never-before-seen photos, the first black supermodel to grace the cover of Vogue and one of the most successful glamour girls ever shares her childhood growing up in the racially charges 1960's, her meteoric rise to fame, her struggles with racism, drug addiction and divorce and her triumph over adversity." (Baker & Taylor annotation)

Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman by Greg Grandin - "A new account of American's most controversial diplomat that moves beyond praise or condemnation to reveal Kissinger as the architect of American's current imperial stance." (McMillan Palgrave, publisher)




The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty - "Explores the life of the distinguished American author and journalist, following Didion's life as a young woman in Sacramento to her adult life as a writer interviewing those who know and knew her personally. (Baker & Taylor annotation)

A Strong West Wind / Gail Caldwell / 226 pages / Biography - Autobiography

A Strong West Wind is a memoir of culture and history - of fathers and daughters, of two world wars and the passionate rebellions of the sixties.  It is a memoir written for each of us who longed to move away from our hometowns, knowing that something better just had to be around the corner.  Caldwell, who grew up in the Texas panhandle, artfully uses the metaphor of the wind to steer us through the passages of her life.   Hooked by her first line "How do we become who we are?",  hers is a story of growing up with more questions than answers, that you could be sad and half crazy and still have a life that meant something, that sometimes these definitions are concealed or shrouded in a brighter truth--what looked like an off-road ditch might be another, better path.

Caldwell artfully weaves disparate themes of literature, war, growing up in the 1960's, and her special relationship with her father into a colorful tapestry. As an avid reader, I particularly enjoyed how she cited lines and characters from favorite books to correspond with scenes in her life. Caldwell is at ease discussing a broad spectrum of authors from classics like Shakespeare and Tolstoy to more modern writers, Faulkner and McCarthy. It is clear how important reading is to her life from her first visits to her hometown library "a generous old Georgian mansion with two sets of stone steps up to its wide verandas." Caldwell aptly describes herself as a child "bored beyond measure without a book in my hand."

From girlhood to middle-age, the wind carries us through these spaces in Caldwell's life--a life like so many of our own.

Similar Read-alike suggestions:  The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan,  All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg, The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer

Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) / Jenny Lawson - The Bloggress / 315 pages / Biography-Autobiography

Her readers obviously don't care whether her book is fact or fiction.  The memoir debuted at the top of the Washington Post and new York Times nonfiction bestseller lists, and in her introduction, Lawson writes, "This book is totally true, except for the parts that aren't".  Lawson relishes revealing plenty about her life, except just how much she may exaggerate about it.  She is hugely popular online where she's detailed her life on the Web for years.

 

The book skims through a series of comic essays, akin to Sedaris if he were an anxiety-stricken Texas mother with a fascination for taxidermy and the zombie apocalypse.  Her writing may be an acquired taste for some, especially with the high animal body count, the constant cursing and the occasionally disjointed manner.  But for her many fans, the randomness will only add to the charm.  The tale is meandering, though never boring and she finds her footing in the world of blogging, where quirkiness is queen.

Similar suggested titles:  Any books written by David Sedaris;  Sippy cups are not for Chardonnay by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor;  My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me by Hilary Winston, or Chelsea  Chelsea Bang-Bang by Chelsea Handler . 

I Am Malala - The Girl Who Stood Up For Education And Was Shot By The Taliban / Malala Yousafzai / 321 pages / Biography-Autobiography

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.  On Tuesday October 9, 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price. When she was shot in the head at point blank range while riding the bus home from school, few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in Northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, and of Malala's parents' fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

It will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world. 

Similar Suggested Read-alikes:  Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof,  Blasphemy by Asia Bibi, First Darling of the Morning by Thrity N. Umrigar.

GENRE STUDY PROGRAM - Biography / Autoboigraphy

In March and April, the RAT Genre study program will cover Biography/Autobiography. Our benchmark title will be The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss.

This is a fascinating book about General Alex Dumas, an individual you may have never of heard of before. Although you have probably heard of his son, famous French novelist Alexandre Dumas! He is author of such classic novels as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo 

both of which were based (in part) on the life and exploits of his father! 

From the publisher, Random House:

"General Alex Dumas, is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
     But, hidden behind General Dumas's swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave—who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time."

The Biography/Autobiography book discussion will be held at General Administration on Wednesday, March 26 starting at 9:00 AM. Copies of the benchmark are available at GA by contacting Lucy, the RAT Queen: llockley@stchlibrar.org

For more information about The Black Count, look under the Benchmarks tab.