Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett

“When her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book” (from inside cover.)   The story unfolds from that moment and this is a humorous, poignant glimpse of how reading changes the Queen’s life and her subjects!

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: Nancy J.

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I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter, by Lynn Cullen

An absorbing romantic novel about Rembrandt’s daughter at the age of fourteen. After her mother dies and her brother moves away, Cornelia is left alone with her father, Rembrandt van Rijn. He has been denounced by his wealthy patrons and can’t offer the affection and care that Cornelia craves. A work of emotional depth, readers will also learn about Rembrandt’s life and art.

Reviewed by:  Susan K

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Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague, by Geraldine Brooks

Becoming a modern classic, this historic novel creates a story whose main characters are an 18-year-old widow with two sons, and the village rector and his wife. Aiding a community struck by a pandemic disease, they see the people coping with illness and death through any means possible. Religion, ethical behavior, and superstition are all called in to play as the plague decimates a remote British village, later commemorated as Plague Village, which was visited by the author.

Reviewed by Ellen Meyers, Public Relations/CB

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The Janissary Tree, by Jason Goodwin

 

This is a mystery thriller set in nineteenth century Istanbul. It is an exotic and intriguing setting.  The detective is a smart, resourceful eunuch who follows the clues of a series of murders.  He solves them through perseverance and a deductive process. This is a great read. 

A sequel has been published recently: “The Snake Stone,” which continues the adventures of this dectective in Isanbul.

RATING: * * * * Very, very good
Reviewed by: KLM

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“Books for You” article in the Newton Tab

Yesterday’s Newton Tab has a nice article on the Library’s personalized book recommendation service, “Books for You.”  Click here for the article, or click here to request your own booklist!

And to browse our list of recommended titles, click here.

Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, by Jill Norgren

Long before Hillary Clinton, there was Belva Lockwood (1830-1917), who ran for the U.S. presidency in 1884 and 1888 on the Equal Rights Party ticket.  One of the first women to receive a law degree, she was also the first female lawyer admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.  As an attorney and lobbyist, she worked for property law reform, equal pay for equal work, and women’s suffrage, and lectured around the world.  She was honored on a U.S postage stamp in 1986. 

Haven’t heard of her?  My book group hadn’t either.  Although she was a contemporary of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and a long-time activist in the women’s movement, she often disagreed with other leaders on policy and priorities, and went her own way.  And when she died–her husband and children having predeceased her–most of her papers were cleaned out and destroyed.  Without diaries, letters, photographs and other personal information, this biography is a bit dry and lacking in humanizing detail.  Nonetheless, Belva Lockwood was a fascinating and accomplished woman, and more of us should know her name.

RATING: * * *  A good read
Reviewed by: stc

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Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay

Paris, July 1942 and Paris, May 2002:  sixty years since the French police roundup of thousands of Jewish families retained in the Velodrome d’Hiver where famiilies were separated and sent to Auschwitz.   The event, commonly called the Vel’ d’Hiv, is twicetold between ten-year-old Sarah who thought she was safely hiding her four-year-old brother in a cupboard, their hiding place, expecting to return to save him, safely guarding the key to the cupboard within her pocket, and Julia Jarmond, American journalist assigned to cover the sixtieth anniversary commemoration, finally opening the French national consciousness and that of her restrained in-laws, to begin a painful healing process.  

ADDITIONAL INFO: The book is written as a tribute to the children who never came back, and to those who survived.  The Velodrome d’Hiver no longer exists but was in the heart of Paris.

RATING: * * * * Very, very good
Reviewed by: cb

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Do you need gift book suggestions?

See our 8th annual holiday book list, with suggestions from Newton Free Library staff.  Titles include fiction, poetry, short stories, non-fiction, biography/memoir, and a long list of suggestions for children.For other ideas, see last year’s gift book list, found on our bibliographies page.

And for still more ideas, see what Mary Cotton of Newtonville Books suggests in the Newton Tab.

Away, by Amy Bloom

Lillian Leyb comes to New York alone in the 1920’s, her family wiped out in a Russian pogrom.  As she builds a completely new life, word comes that her young daughter is alive and well and living in Siberia.  The novel then turns from immigrant saga to road trip, as Lillian crosses America, Canada, and the Alaskan wilderness to try to reach the one part of her old life she still has left.  The story is filled with a cast of vividly-drawn characters, and as Lillian moves on and leaves them behind, Bloom ties up their stories for us.  A beautiful and heartbreaking novel of transformation and reinvention in early 20th century America.

Rating: ***** One of the best books I’ve read
Reviewd by: stc

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Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, by David Weinberger

A meditation on the nature of organization in the modern world, and how things no longer have merely their place, but places.  In the digital world (what Weinberger calls the “third order” of organization), we are no longer dealing simply with physical things which have one place, but digital information, which can fit in many categories.  This gives us the ability to order and search in multiple ways, depending upon our needs–and in the process is transforming business, education, politics, science, and culture.  In a “miscellaneous world,” authority becomes more diffuse, with information assembled not in a fixed way or according to someone else’s priorities, but reflecting our own needs and interests–which might change the next time we search.  A hard book to describe, but interesting to read.

Rating:  *** A good read
Reviewed by:  stc

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