McAuliffe
Branch Book Discussion
The McAuliffe Branch book discussion meets September-November and January-May.
Meetings are at 7:00 pm on Wednesday and 10:00 am on Thursday, the
third week of the month.
Did You Know?
Many current and popular books are now available in
trade paperback (larger paperbacks that are easier to read). In the Main Library, you can find these paperbacks in two special sections. Right behind the first 14-day-book shelf is a display of new trade paperbacks that have been especially selected for interest, popularity and readability. The Express Paperback section at the left of the circulation desk highlights popular in-demand books, many of which are still on reserve. You might come across hot titles like
Water for Elephants or Eat, Pray, Love - or you might want to try something you've never heard of!
Top Ten Requests
for the Week: July 23
See something you missed? Click on the title to go to the Minuteman
Library Network catalog to place your reserve. Looking for more
ideas? Check out Minuteman's 50
most requested titles for the month and our list of noteworthy
new books.
Looking for more ideas?
Check out the library's fiction &
leisure reading lists to find more books on your favorite themes. Spies or romance, thrillers or
friendship - our booklists cover a range of themes and tastes.
Visit the Novelist database,
where you can find lists of books with your favorite plots, themes, or
settings.
Recommended by Rebecca Berkowitz, Main
Library Reference Librarian The Late Homecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia
Yang. B Yang, K. Yang.
Yang, who was born in a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand, tells the
story of her family and thousands of other Hmong who supported the
United States in Laos during the Vietnam War. After the war this
ethnic group without a homeland was forced to flee local reprisals.
From primitive refugee camps in Thailand the American government
eventually resettled their former allies in the United States. In
many ways these disenfranchised people then followed the classic
immigration experience, but they were also unique. They came from a
non-Western rainforest culture about which most Americans knew
nothing. Hmong religion, medicine, and folklore are famously ill
suited to American life and yet they persisted. A beautifully
written, unforgettable journey.
The
Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson. Fiction.
The author of the beloved Crow Lake returns us to a
small town in Northern Canada and a tale as old as time: two
brothers in a family where each parent has a favorite son, the
younger can think circles around the older, and both brothers are in
love with the same girl. The story is rich in context and social
history, as the community weathers the Depression, World War II and
the betrayal of those ill suited to this isolated community. Those
who remain do so for their own unique reasons.
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in
the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. 306.85 LeBlanc.
LeBlanc spent ten years following a large extended Latino family
living in the South Bronx. The resulting book is a rare look at the
world through the eyes of her subjects. The author scrupulously
removes herself from the narrative, allowing her characters lives to
unfold without comment or characterization. The reader comes to
understand the struggle required to survive the unrelenting grind of
living in deep urban poverty. Obviously the issues defy easy
answers, but this work goes a long way towards explaining the
problem.
