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| American Harvest: God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland by Marie Mutsuki MockettWhat it's about: After inheriting her Nebraska-born father’s 7,000-acre family wheat farm, the nonreligious Japanese American author spent a season accompanying the itinerant group of Christian wheat harvesters from Pennsylvania who'd reaped her family's fields for years. As they worked and made their way from Texas to Idaho, she pondered faith, farming, food, and family.
Why you might like it: Offering a poetic, evocative look at the heartland, it provides a kindhearted, thoughtful look at divisions, from science and faith to rural and urban and more. |
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Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All With the Greatest Chef in the World
by Jeff Gordinier
What it is: a memoir, biography, and culinary travelogue all in one evocative, innovative book.
What it's about: With his marriage ending, food critic Jeff Gordinier traveled with charismatic, celebrated Danish chef and restaurateur René Redzepi, who was himself restless and at loose ends, on various adventures to discover local ingredients and interesting flavors.
Locations visited: Mexico, Australia, the U.S., Denmark, and Norway.
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| Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning by Alex HalberstadtWhat it's about: Raised in New York City from the age of nine by his divorced Russian Jewish mother and her parents, journalist Alex Halberstadt returned to his Russian birthplace in his mid-thirties. In Moscow, he visited the father he'd rarely seen and dug into his family's past, and in Ukraine, he met for the first time his 93-year-old grandfather, who'd been one of Stalin's bodyguards.
What sets it apart: thoughts about identity and the inheritance of trauma; a compelling, keen-eyed combination of travelogue, memoir, Soviet history, and journalism. |
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Road Trips with Relatives
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| Driving Miss Norma: An Inspirational Story About What Really Matters at the End of Life by Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie LiddleStarring: charming nonagenarian Norma; her retired son, Tim; his personable wife, Ramie; and their standard poodle, Ringo.
What happened: After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis the same week her husband died, Norma decided to forgo a nursing home and invasive chemotherapy to embark on a lively tour of the country with Tim, Ramie, and Ringo in their Airstream RV.
Adventures include: hot air balloon rides, NBA courtside seats, a fêted appearance at the Boston St. Patrick's Day parade, and more. |
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| Love that Boy: What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me about... by Ron FournierWhat it is: a candid, thoughtful memoir recounting a former White House correspondent's father-son road trips with his history-obsessed 13-year-old, who'd recently been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.
Locations include: the White House; Teddy Roosevelt's former home of Sagamore Hill; Monticello; several presidential libraries.
What sets it apart: research and interviews about parental expectations in general; Fournier's own hard-won parenting insights; long visits with former presidents (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush) and a White House party with Barack and Michelle Obama. |
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| Once More to the Rodeo: A Memoir by Calvin HennickWhat it's about: White journalist Calvin Hennick and his five-year-old biracial son Nile left the rest of their small family and their suburban Boston home to spend ten days on the road. They drove to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls, Chicago, and more as they made their way to Hennick's Iowa hometown and its annual rodeo.
What's inside: This honest, heartfelt, and funny memoir offers thoughtful looks at Hennick's fatherless childhood, his alcohol addiction, fatherhood, masculinity, identity, and racism.
Award Buzz: This acclaimed debut won Pushcart's 2019 Editor's Book Award. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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