Rowayton Library
March 2013              Reviews by Rowayton Library's Reader Advisor, Ruth Freeman

Maybe a good book or two will keep us warm... until Spring! 

 

 

'Saturday Night Widows' by Becky Aikman is an uplifting read for anyone determined to prevail over the loss of a loved one. Dispirited by the traditional approaches to dealing with grief, Becky forms a widows group after the death of her husband. Her commitment to finding happiness again is inspirational. The group, with varied personalities, meets once a month and embarks on a variety of adventures. Their responses to forging a new life are sometimes comic, always touching...

 

Author Becky Aikman will be joining us for an AuthorTalk on Friday, April 12 @ 7pm at the Rowayton Library.  Everyone is invited. 

 

Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog 

 

 

 

'Canada' by Richard Ford is powerful, atmospheric and wrenching. It is narrated by 15 year old Dell Parsons. He and his twin sister Berner are cast adrift after their bumbling parents end up in jail. As a result of the best intentions of a neighbor Dell lands in Saskatchewan, where he lives a bleak and lonely existence. Forced to literally raise himself, he learns by observing a world of at best quirky but often amoral adults.

 

Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog  

 

 

'A Cold and Lonely Place' by Sarah Henry is set in the Adirondacks. Henry nails the atmosphere of a small town, frigid existence in the north woods. A body found frozen beneath the ice leads Troy Chance to write a series of articles on the man, who she knew. The deeper she digs, the more she realizes there is nothing straightforward about his story.

 

Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog   

 

 

 

'Ratlines' by Stuart Neville is set in Ireland in 1963. It explores the little known facts surrounding Nazis who fled to Ireland after the war. It is tense and graphic, as a rash of murders forces the powers that be to investigate. It's nerve wracking for them as there are parts of the past they would just as soon not turn up. Double crosses and triple crosses abound.

 

 Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog  

 

    

 

'Elsewhere' by Richard Russo. Is a moving memoir about his mother and growing up in small town Gloversville, New York. She raised him on her own and was attached to the point of moving with him to Arizona when he started college. Wildly irrational at times, never easy, it took a lifetime to understand the issues that made her so difficult. This is a fascinating look into this well known author's life.

 

  Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog 

 

 


'Pati's Mexican Table' by Pati Jinich is a great companion to her public television show. It is full of luscious color photographs of intensely flavored Mexican foods. We tested her empanada recipe and loved the tender dough combined with the picadillo filling. Unfailingly cheerful, she makes it fun to tackle new ideas and recipes.

 

  Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog     

 


'The Blackhouse' by Peter May is set in the Hebrides. Fin Macleod is sent back to the island of his youth to investigate a gruesome murder that is eerily similar to one that occurred in Edinburgh three months prior. Faced with people, places and events he thought he had left behind he must bring a murderer to justice and resolve his feelings for the ghosts of his past.

 

Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog  

 

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'Contagious' by Jonah Berger addresses the question of why certain products, ideas and behaviors are talked about more than others. Read on to learn more about the role of social currency, triggers, emotion, publicity, practical value and the importance of the stories we tell each other.

 

 

  Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog   

 

 

'Raising the Curve - A Year Inside one of America's 45,000 Failing Public Schools' by Ron Berler is required reading for anyone interested in public education in the city of Norwalk. The author spent a year at Brookside School observing students, teachers and administrators. The book centers on the effort to raise the school's CMT scores and focuses on one fifth grade class. The challenges of meeting state standards, given the reality of a hugely diverse group of students, is compassionately explored in this book.

 

  Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog    

 

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'The Still Point of the Turning World' by Emily Rapp is the heartbreaking memoir of the brief life of her son Ronan, diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease at the age of six months and given just a few years to live. Despite the grim progression of this incurable disease this is a book about life, not death. Part memoir and part meditation on a full life, it will stay with you.

 

 

  Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog   

 

 

'Three Graves Full', Jamie Mason's clever debut novel, features a hapless Jason Getty,who just buried a bad guy in his back yard. When Jason is stunned to discover two additional bodies buried in his side yard, we're off on a wild and twisty ride with several well-drawn characters (and a dog to die for) as they converge on one - or is it two or three? - murderers.   Murphy's Law reigns supreme in this suspenseful, well-written story.

 

  Put a HOLD on this book... through the Rowayton Library's online catalog    

 

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