The titles and links below will direct you to print copies when available. Click on the title to see all available formats, including recorded versions and eBooks.
You can learn more about using eBooks and eAudiobooks on our blog, and contact us if you need assistance. *Restrictions to using Hoopla apply based on your home address.
Addie's husband Leo sees very weird things out the window. He must be hallucinating. She's an artist, specializing in collage; he's a scientist, and their marriage has been harmonious—so far. But things get increasingly weird and then comes the dread diagnosis: Lewy Body Syndrome. How can she cope? Enter marvelous Jamaican caregiver, Larissa. Addie sets her and Leo up in a separate apartment. It's still nightmarish but kind of doable. In very short chapters, Addie tells it like it is with absolute candor. Yes, there's love, but also confusion, exhaustion, and periodic despair. Despite the grim subject, it is a very satisfying novel.
Subtitled: Working and Homeless in America. Gladstone, a journalist, follows five stories of folks who are scrambling as hard as they can and losing ground at every turn. They have aspirations, but with each missed payment, eviction, health challenge, and relationship problems, these fade as they try to find a decent roof over their heads. Bizarre and inconsistent bureaucratic rules thwart them at every turn, since they don't fit the definition of total homelessness that the programs require. The extended stay motels they land in are disgracefully squalid and exploitative. This is a painful read, but I stayed with it because it opened my eyes to a subculture I know little about. And, I must admit, it made me very grateful for the roof over my very own head.
In Vienna in 1938, five-year old Samuel is sent away to England through the Kindertransport program to keep him safe from the Nazis. He's a violin prodigy, but also a very frightened little boy who's lost his whole family. The novel then leaps to Arizona where we meet Anita, another child with a similar history. In a migrant raid, her mother was summarily deported. Selena, a social worker, joins forces with Frank, a lawyer, and they travel to Central American in hopes of tracking down Anita's relatives. The girl is blind, very smart and imaginative, and has created a magical world that gives her some comfort as she's shuttled between nightmarish facilities and foster homes. Samuel's live-in housekeeper, Leticia, turns out to be Anita's cousin, and when Selena introduces Anita to them, a new family is formed. Indeed, as Anita says, the wind knows her name and has blown her to a refuge that satisfies all parties deeply. Very relevant these days, and very moving.
In this propulsive, richly detailed historical novel circa 1895, we travel along with a panoply of real-life characters, including the steam train herself. We’re tipped off at the start that something dreadful will happen. Mado, a young anarchist, has a home-made bomb in her lunchbox, with plans to make a big political statement. Other passengers in all three classes have their own trajectories, including a 7-year-old-boy traveling on his own and a single, very pregnant woman hoping to leave the product of her shame in Paris. In the back of the book we see the actual photo of what happened -- shocking. It’s one hell of a ride, start to finish.
Add a comment to: Neshama’s Choices for June 16