May Readings

"Rending the Garment tells a familiar tale: the Jewish immigrant family romance, but with an important difference. Using shifting points of view and narrative interruptions, biographical essays, scolding notes from school principals, diary entries, not to mention a cast of characters as lively as a Borscht Belt revue, Willa Schneberg tells her story from the inside, where grief and love live side by side in bed."

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren. In her new book, an unlikely political star tells the story of the two-decade journey that taught her how Washington really works -- and really doesn't. As a child in small-town Oklahoma, Elizabeth Warren yearned to go to college and then become an elementary school teacher -- an ambitious goal, given her family's modest means. Early marriage and motherhood seemed to put even that dream out of reach, but fifteen years later she was a distinguished law professor with a deep understanding of why people go bankrupt. Then came the phone call that changed her life: could she come to Washington DC to help advise Congress on rewriting the bankruptcy laws? Thus began an impolite education into the bare-knuckled, often dysfunctional ways of Washington. Now a Senator, Ms. Warren tells her story with passion, humor, and a call to action. Her goal is the survival of American middle class working families.

Let's Just Say it Wasn't Pretty by Diane Keaton. An Academy Award-winner (and woman of a certain age) has written a candid, hilarious, and deeply affecting look at beauty, aging, and the importance of staying true to yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks. In a voice that is unique and welcome, Ms. Keaton offers up a message of empowerment for anyone who has ever dreamed of kicking back against the "should"s and "supposed to"s that can undermine our pursuit of beauty in all its forms. Throughout, her wry wit and sense of style remind us that we are in the presence of a woman who has learned that a life well lived is the most beautiful thing of all.

Still Life with Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlen. This new story by a beloved novelist is a powerfully observed, deeply moving, and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman. Rebecca Winter is a photographer whose work made her a heroine to many women. Her career is now fading, her finances are shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she meets Jim Bates, a roofer who teaches her that what she sees through a camera is not all there is to her life. This is Ms. Quindlen's seventh novel. All have been bestsellers.

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson. From the author of the word-of-mouth sensation  The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, this wildly picaresque new novel begins in a tiny shack in the largest township in South Africa, where Nombeko Mayeki is born. Put to work at five and orphaned at ten, she quickly learns that she is not expected to do well in this world. That doesn't stop her from learning to read and write and making her way out of Soweto. Unfortunately, her way out includes millions of smuggled diamonds. She escapes to Sweden, of all places, and learns of a plot to kidnap the King. It becomes up to our heroine to save the day. A charming and hilarious story.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman. This mesmerizing novel is the story of a passionate love affair between two vastly different people during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century. Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. She meets Eddie Cohen, a dashing Russian immigrant photographer whose pictures of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire grab her attention as Eddie grabs her heart. With its colorful cast of bootleggers, heiresses, thugs, and idealists, New York City itself becomes a riveting character in this illuminating tale of love in tumultuous times.

In stories of several pages, a paragraph, or even a sentence, Lydia Davis wows us with her sharp observations, her wry and witty poignancy, her bracing candor, her sly humor, and above all her deft and precise prose.

Davis was awarded the 2013 Man Booker International Prize for achievement in fiction. Her most recent collection, Varieties of Disturbance, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She is also the acclaimed translator of Swann's Way and Madame Bovary, both of which were awarded the French American Foundation Translation Prize.

Diagnosed with a heart condition at age forty-one, Dee Williams was all too suddenly reminded that life is short, time is precious, and she wanted to be spending hers with the people and things she truly loved. Building an eighty-four-square-foot house -- on her own, from the ground up -- was just the beginning of building a new life. Williams can now list everything she owns on one sheet of paper, her monthly housekeeping bills amount to about eight dollars, and it takes her approximately ten minutes to clean the entire abode. It's left her with more time to spend with family and friends and given her the freedom to head out for adventure at a moment's notice or to watch the clouds and sunset while drinking a beer on her (yes, tiny) front porch.

Williams is a teacher, designer, woodworker, and sustainability advocate. She is the owner of two businesses, Portland Alternative Dwellings and Boxcar Woodcraft, where she designs and builds tiny houses. She conducts green-building workshops across the country with Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and is the author of Go House Go, a manual for building small homes. She lives in Olympia, Washington.

Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home,

Boyd Varty  

Boyd Varty had an unconventional upbringing, growing up on Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa -- a place where man and nature strive for balance, where perils exist alongside wonders. Founded more than eighty years ago as a hunting ground, Londolozi was transformed into a nature reserve beginning in 1973 by Varty's father and uncle, visionaries of the restoration movement. But it wasn't just a sanctuary for the animals; it was also a place for ravaged land to flourish again and for the human spirit to be restored. When Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years of imprisonment, he came here to recover.

Cathedral of the Wild is Varty's memoir of his life on the reserve. It was there that he and his equally adventurous sister learned to track animals, raised leopard and lion cubs, followed their larger-than-life uncle on his many adventures filming wildlife, and became one with the land. Varty survived a harrowing black mamba encounter, a debilitating bout with malaria, even a vicious crocodile attack, but his biggest challenge was a personal crisis of purpose. An intense spiritual quest takes him across the globe and back again -- to reconnect with nature and "rediscover the track."

 Is your book club looking for ideas for new books? We're always glad to brainstorm with you. And we're happy to let you know if books are readily available, and when they'll be out in paperback.

Roberta Dyer or Sally McPherson
Broadway Books
(503) 284-1726
bookbroads@qwestoffice.net