Lisa says:
BookSense is website that collects and advertises the wisdom of independent booksellers across the country. Each month, booksellers from stores large and small review what they think is really hot; the best of these reviews are collected in a list called BookSense Picks.
Click here to see what their monthly picks are for this month!
Lisa says:
The popularity of Sheila Weller’s Girls like us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–and the journey of a generation expresses the desire to revisit (or learn about) that magical, stormy time in our history (also on CD). If you are on a waiting list for a copy of this tri-ography, there are plenty of other titles steeped in sixties culture to keep you preoccupied. Here’s a list of some recent publications to get you started. Use the comments to add your favorites to the list!
Boom: voices of the sixties by Tom Brokaw (also large type, CD, Playaway and downloadable audio)
A freewheelin’ time: a memoir of Greenwich Village in the sixties by Suze Rotolo
The hippie narrative: a literary perspective on the counterculture by Scott MacFarlane
Laurel Canyon: the inside story of rock-and-roll’s legendary neighborhood by Michael Walker (also CD)
Prime green: remembering the sixties by Robert Stone
The sixties: photographs by Robert Altman
The sixties rock experience (3 CD set)
Sixties style by Judith Miller
The sixties: the years that shaped a generation produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting (DVD)
Regan says:
Summer reading is a good time to laugh, even out loud. And Roger Rosenblatt (you may recognize the name if you watch the PBS’ News Hour) turns in a fast, funny, final exam on New England’s small liberal arts college culture. From a professor hero named Peace (by hippie parents) to the porcine mascot of Beet College—there are lots of characters to cheer and boo. A deadline looms for the college and as the school year ends– will it be the college’s last or will Peace find a way?
Melody says:
Randy, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked last summer to give a lecture which he titled “The Last Lecture” as he had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six months to live. He is married and has three young children under the age of six. The lecture was so moving to me; I first watched him on Oprah, where he gave the lecture again. It was so touching! He basically tells one and all about achieving those childhood dreams, overcoming obstacles, and asks the question if we were going to leave or vanish tomorrow, what would we want to leave as our legacy? It is very poignant and will forever be the “message in the bottle” for his children. (You can also watch his lecture online by going to www.thelastlecture.com) [book] [audiobook]
Author: Randy Pausch
Kris says:
It’s the 1930’s along the humid Missouri river, and at the old family home Hedie Rails Ducharme hasn’t been married long before she realizes her handsome free-spending husband is also a gangster. Pregnant and often alone, Hedie glimpses ghosts and begins reading journals written by the many “river wives” before her.
The family saga begins in the 1830’s with a massive earthquake that buries the little Missouri river town of New Madrid and brings young Annie Lark’s roof down on her. Abandoned and trapped beneath heavy beams, she’s eventually rescued by charming Jacques Ducharme, a French fur trapper who came to loot, but stays to nurse her to health and marry her. From modest beginnings they build a river inn and prosper, and Annie forms a warm friendship with one particular guest, John J. Audubon. Then Jacques’ piratical dealings destroy their future forever. Time claims most of the lusty figures that began the venture, but a mysterious witchery sustains Jacques decades beyond a normal lifespan, while he nefariously accumulates and hoards immense wealth. Suddenly he’s gone, leaving successive generations, including Hedie, to search fruitlessly for the treacherous river pirate’s legendary treasure, while the impassive and mighty Missouri rolls on.
Author: Jonis Agee
Suzanne says:
I just finished “Shift” by Jennifer Bradbury. And yes, I read it in one night. If you’re looking for a coming-of -age mystery adventure, this is the read for you. Two high school friends decide to bicycle across the country to the West Coast to celebrate their high school graduation/liberation. Being an avid cyclist myself, I appreciate the sense of freedom the characters experience while biking and the physical and relational challenges they face. One makes it to the coast, the other does not. As the cover states, “Some friends fade away…others disappear”. Who disappears? Why? Read it to find out!
Jeanne says:
There have been a number of documentaries about climate change or peak oil or environmental degradation. This fascinating and disturbing “essay” by an average middle-aged man looks at all of these issues on a much larger scale. He interviews many noted authors and scientists who discuss the history of humans on our planet as well as the psychological and sociological factors that influence our possible extinction on Earth.
Christine says:
I just finished Touchstone by Laurie R. King. It’s a departure from her Mary Russell series (about Sherlock Holmes) and her stand-alone thrillers set in the San Juan islands. It’s about Harris Stuyvesant, an American agent in the pre-cursor to the FBI, who heads to England on the trail of a terrorist who has planted bombs in the U.S. His investigations lead him to Aldous Carstairs, a shady quasi-governmental figure with information about a prominent union activist who is Stuyvesant’s main suspect. Carstairs has plans to quelch a General Strike and solidify his place in British history–and will to go any lengths to carry out his vision. Stuyvesant must carefully outwit Carstairs, insinuate himself into British society and gain the sympathies of the union organizers before any bombs go off on British soil. King does an excellent job sustaining tension and crafting complex, sympathetic characters. It’s an interesting period in world
history and one that is not written about frequently. Stuyvesant is a compelling hero and it’s very possible there will be a sequel.
Suzanne says:
I recently read “After the Plague” by T. Coraghessan Boyle – loved his writing style. He was ruthless with his characters and hit upon some universal human traits as a result. Love to read his writing, not sure I’d want to be his friend. He shows no mercy through either his plots or his representations.
Lisa says:
Summer brings out that longing for a road trip. If you’re avoiding high gas pump price tags and need to road trip vicariously, here are 81 road trippin’ adventures to satisfy your wanderlust.
Gentlemen of the Road: a Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon / Mother Road and Song of the Road by Dorothy Garlock [Route 66 series] / Eureka by Jim Lehrer / Find Me by Carol O’Connell / Gardenias for Breakfast by Robin Gunn / American Purgatorio by John Haskell / White Widow by Jim Lehrer / Handling Sin by Michael Malone / Loop Group by Larry McMurtry / Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech / No Man’s Land by GM Ford / 20 Times a Lady by Karyn Bosnak / Wakefield by Andrei Codrescu / Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane / Only Revolutions by Mark Danielewski / / Wolf Point by Edward Falco / As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner / Mad River Road by Joy Fielding / Society of S by Susan Hubbard / Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson / The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver / Mission to America by Walter Kirn / Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips / Sideways by Rex Pickett / Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish / Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas by Barbara Samuel / Fruit of Stone by Mark Spragg / Roads of the Heart by Christopher Tilghman / Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler / Gateways: A Repairman Jack Novel by Paul F. Wilson / Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie / So Long and Thanks for all the Fish! by Douglass Adams / The Christmas Train by David Baldacci / Night Over Water by Ken Follett / Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy / Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo / The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty / Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey / Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore / Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire / Stardust by Neil Gaiman / Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins / Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier / The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy / Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler / Thousand Country Roads by Robert James Waller / The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg / Old Boyfriends by Rexanne Becnel / Dreaming Southern by Linda Bruckheimer / Cupid’s Corner by Annie Jones / Double Heart Diner by Annie Jones / Lost Romance Ranch by Annie Jones / Free Bird by Greg Garrett / Spinsters by Pagan Kennedy / First Lady by Susan E. Phillips / Easy Money by Jenny Siler / Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra / Massachusetts, California, Timbuktu by Stephanie Rosenfeld / Heart Seizure by Bill Fitzhugh / Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke / By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee by Tama Janowitz / After Lucy by Daniel Jones / Living Other Lives by Caroline Leavitt / The Late Child by Larry McMurtry / Bright Angel Time by Martha McPhee / Cruisers by Craig Nova / Getting Mother’s Body by Suzan-Lori Parks / A Cure for Gravity by Arthur Rosenfeld / Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas by Davy Rothbart / Zanesville by Kris Saknussemm / Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters by Timothy Schaffert / Coyote Dream by Jessica Davis Stein / Almost Heaven by Marianne Wiggins / Leavin’ Trunk Blues by Ace Atkins / Fatal Glass of Beer by Stuart M. Kaminsky / License to Thrill by Lori Wilde / Murder on the Caronia by Allen Conrad / Send a Fax to the Kasbah by Dorothy Dunnett / Wheels by Arthur Hailey / The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood
