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Literary Salon meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month to share recent favorite books, authors, or series. Twelve readers shared the following books in March. Please join us at the next Lit Salon on Wednesday, April 13th at 5pm. Check lopezlibrary.org or email Beth for current information. Happy Spring Reading!
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Illegal
by Francisco X. Stork
Fleeing across the American border to escape a violent drug cartel, Emiliano goes into hiding as an undocumented immigrant while his sister is held indefinitely in a detention facility, where she hopes to be granted asylum.
INGRID SHARED THIS THOUGHT-PROVOKING QUOTE ABOUT PROVIDING ROOM IN YOUR LARGE HOME FOR A REFUGEE FAMILY (p. 250): "Of course it's realistic. It can be done. [But] our lives would totally change. Our lives as we know them would get inconvenient, more uncomfortable. And she's right. Even if we sponsored one family, there would still be hundreds, thousands who need help. So I don't know. And then, there is all this hatred everywhere. No one listens to each other. Each side has good ideas, but they're just interested in calling each other names. It's just hatred. My mother thinks her hatred is justified because her cause is the right one, but it is still hatred, isn't it? How is liberal hatred different from conservative hatred? I hate living with so much hatred. That's my articulation of immigration, such as it is."
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The salt path
by Raynor Winn
A true story of a couple who lost everything follows Raynor and Moth Winn, as they, after learning that Moth is terminally ill and their farm and house are taken away, embark on a remarkable and life-affirming journey walking the 630-mile South West Coast Path in England.
BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND LIFE-AFFIRMING.
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The wild silence
by Raynor Winn
"The incredible follow-up to the international bestseller The Salt Path, a story of finding your way back home. Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After walking 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living on the windswept and wild English coastline; the cliffs, the sky and the chalky earth now feel like their home. Moth has a terminal diagnosis, but together on the wild coastal path, with their feet firmly rooted outdoors, they discover that anything is possible. Now, life beyond The Salt Path awaits and they come back to four walls, but the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult - until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything. A chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep in the Cornish hills; rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows becomes their saving grace and their new path to follow. The Wild Silence is a story of hope triumphing over despair, of lifelong love prevailing over everything. It is a luminous account of the human spirit's connection to nature, and how vital it is for us all."
QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THE FIRST BOOK, BUT EQUALLY BEAUTIFUL AND ENGAGING.
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A tale for the time being
by Ruth L. Ozeki
A novelist on a remote island in the Pacific is linked to a bullied and depressed Tokyo teenager after discovering a Hello Kitty lunchbox that washed ashore in this new novel from the award-wining, best-selling author of My Year of Meats.
MANY-LAYERED: ZEN, PHYSICS, TIME, AND MORE.
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Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
In early 1900s Korea, prized daughter Sunja finds herself pregnant and alone, bringing shame on her family until a young tubercular minister offers to marry her and bring her to Japan, in the saga of one family bound together as their faith and identity are called into question.
INTENSE HISTORICAL FICTION.
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Educated : a memoir
by Tara Westover
Traces the author's experiences as a child born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, describing her participation in her family's paranoid stockpiling activities and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn an acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond.
DEVESTATING BUT UPLIFTING.
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Unthinkable : trauma, truth, and the trials of American democracy
by Jamin B. Raskin
Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the 45 days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.
READS ALMOST LIKE FICTION; FASCINATING.
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Never
by Ken Follett
Navigating terrorist attacks, illegal arms trading and smear campaigns, Pauline Green, the country’s first women president, is caught in a complex web of alliances with the most powerful counties that are being orchestrated by the enemy, and only those with the most elite skills can stop the inevitable.
MULTI-LAYERED AND MULTINATIONAL.
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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith
Working in Gaborone, Botswana, Precious Ramotswe investigates several local mysteries, including a search for a missing boy and the case of the clinic doctor with different personalities for different days of the week.
GOOD BEDTIME READING ACCORDING TO THIS READER!
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The house in the cerulean sea
by TJ Klune
"A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they're likely to bring about the end of days. But the children aren't the only secret the island keeps..."
SO WARM-HEARTED; ADDRESSES FOUND FAMILY AND FIGHTING PREJUDICE.
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100 Flying Birds : Photographing the Mechanics of Flight
by Peter Cavanagh
100 Flying Birds: Photographing the Mechanics of Flight offers a vivid and varied glimpse into the world of birds. A white-tailed eagle plummeting through a Japanese sky, a brown pelican striking a silhouette against an Ecuadorian sunset, an Atlantic puffin carrying its fish dinner above the Scottish coast, or a keel-billed toucan gliding through a Costa Rican jungle canopy; readers will marvel at the splendor of birds in flight while learning the techniques to capture these gravity-defying moments from a world-class nature photographer. For each picture, author and photographer Peter Cavanagh shares his most evocative thoughts: the challenges of the shoot, the beauty of the location, and the curiosities of the species. Bird people will enjoy the bird photographs and facts, travelers will gobble up the tales of distant parts, and photographers will absorb the technical details. For instance, readers might be surprised to see that a very slow shutter speed can freeze the motion of hummingbird wings.
AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHS AND JUST-THE-RIGHT-LENGTH TEXT.
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The gift of rain
by Twan Eng Tan
Phillip Hutton lives on a Malaysian island and befriends Endo-san, a Japanese Zen master, who teaches him akido, but when World War II breaks out and the Japanese invade the island, he is torn between saving the lives of his countrymen and his loyalty tohis master.
MULTILAYERED.
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Rick Steves Prague & the Czech Republic
by Rick Steves
Empowering Americans to have European trips that are fun, affordable and culturally broadening, the best-selling author presents this guidebook to the Czech Republic that helps readers make the most of every day and every dollar.
OUR READER'S GRANDDAUGHTER IS GOING TO SCHOOL IN PRAGUE.
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The Guest Cat
by Takashi Hiraide
A couple in their 30s, living in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo, no longer have much to say to each other until a cat invites itself into their home, bringing joy and promise, until something happens.
THE AUTHOR IS A POET AND IT SHOWS.
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The beauty in breaking : memoir
by Michele Harper
"A series of connected personal stories drawn from the author's life and work as an ER doctor that explores how we are all broken--physically, emotionally, and psychically--and what we can do to heal ourselves as we try to heal others."
HOW TO LIVE LIFE IN SPITE OF BEING BROKEN.
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Mercy
by David Baldacci
As the long search for twin sister Mercy reaches its conclusion, FBI agent Atlee Pine, when the truth is finally revealed, will face the greatest danger yet, one that could cost her everything. (suspense).
OUR READER LIKED BOOKS 1-3 MUCH BETTER; THIS ONE DOESN'T HAVE THE CRISPNESS OF THE OTHERS.
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This is how you lose the time war
by Amal El-Mohtar
Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters and soon fall in love, even though the discovery of their bond could mean death for each of them.
BITTERSWEET, ROMANTIC, READS MORE LIKE POETRY.
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No one will miss her : a novel
by Kat Rosenfield
When the town pariah Lizzie Oullette is found dead, with her husband missing, Detective Ian Bird discovers a link to a social media influencer and wife of a disgraced billionaire who had a relationship with Lizzie that cut across class boundaries—and ultimately became deadly.
WITTY, HARD TO PUT DOWN.
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The Dutch house : a novel
by Ann Patchett
A tale set over the course of five decades traces the consequences of Cyril Conroy's purchase of a lavish Philadelphia estate for him, his wife, and his children, Danny and Maeve, who struggle to escape from poverty following his death.
VIVID CHARACTERS, INCLUDING THE HOUSE.
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The address book : what street addresses reveal about identity, race, wealth, and power
by Deirdre Mask
"An exuberant work of popular history: the story of how streets got their names and houses their numbers, and why something as seemingly mundane as an address can save lives or enforce power. Addresses arose out of a grand Enlightenment project to name and number the streets, but they are also a way for people to be identified and tracked by those in power. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata, on the streets of London, or in post-earthquake Haiti."
HOW ADDRESSES CAME TO BE, WORLDWIDE; VERY READABLE.
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Lopez Island Library 2225 Fisherman Bay Rd Lopez Island, Washington 98261 360-468-2265www.lopezlibrary.org |
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