Hi everyone, the August Southeast Steuben County Library Book Club gathering originally scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, August 9, 2024, is cancelled due to the impending inclement weather, courtesy of Hurricane Debby.

Our August gathering is rescheduled for next Friday, August 16, 2024 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Copies of both the August Read: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and our upcoming September Read: Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian are available at the Circulation Desk and can be picked up at any time. I imagine most people already have a copy of Remarkably Bright Creatures, but just FYI, in case someone who couldn’t make our originally scheduled gathering is available to come next week.

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And here are the belated notes from our July gathering with our July recommended reads:

July Notes: On The July Read: The Amazing Gracie Adams by Fran Littlewood

Our July Read was The Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood. The novel was a Read With Jenna recommendation and told the story of the lead character, Gracie Adams, who readers learn as the story unfolds, is a middle aged former linguist-turned-stay-at-home-mom, going through perimenopause & a mid-life crisis, while simultaneously trying to cope in the aftermath of a family tragedy which facilitated the breakup of her marriage.  

The novel can be compared to the film Falling Down (1993), starring Michael Douglas, as just as the lead character in the Douglas film gets to a point where he has had enough stress, says the proverbial “when” and then  deviates from societal norms, having a walking about kind of a day along the way, so too Gracie, just gets out of her car, in the middle of a traffic jam and walks away; determinedly walking toward a bakery located miles away to pick up a birthday cake for her estranged daughter. And Gracie too has walk-about kind of journey which ends with less of a bang than the Douglas film (no spoilers here, in case you haven’t seen the movie!), but still resolves the previous stress and crisis in Gracie’s life and allows her to move on. 

The general consensus of the book club members was to give this title two thumbs down; the general impression was that Gracie was too angry during the book, and her reaction to what was going on in her life was too over the top to be credible; so I think we can fairly say, The Amazing Gracie Adams, wasn’t really amazing!

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On Our 2025 Schedule: Looking forward to 2025, I have yet to select books to read and discuss for 2025. And am looking for suggestions! So, if anyone has read any terrific books they’d like us to read and discuss in the next year, let me know, and/or bring a list to book club next Friday.

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Book Club Members Recommended Reads: July Edition

Books:

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt: “An urgent and provocative read on why so many kids are not okay—and how to course correct. Jonathan Haidt makes a powerful case that the shift from play-based to phone-based childhoods is wreaking havoc on mental health and social development. Even if you’re not ready to ban smartphones until high school, this book will challenge you to rethink how we nurture the potential in our kids and prepare them for the world.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, and host of the TED podcast Re:Thinking

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Enlightenment: A Novel by Sarah Perry: “Stunning…Perry’s shimmering prose draws readers gradually into the story, until suddenly, we are captivated by the rich, psychologically complex, and intimate characters as they grapple philosophically with issues of faith, religion, science, astronomy, and love in all its guises. Most impressive are Perry’s command of language and the extensive knowledge of astronomy and physics that she nimbly incorporates into the narrative. With brilliant storytelling, Perry’s novel of dichotomies portrays how elliptical our lives are—very much like the movement of the stars.” — Booklist (starred review)

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Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means MD: “Fitness and healthy food should be at the center of how we think about preventing and reversing disease and obesity — but they aren’t. Good Energy explains why this is the case and provides readers tactical tips to take their power back. Calley and Casey Means are bold siblings on a mission who communicate timeless and accessible metabolic principles that anyone can implement.” – Jillian Michaels, fitness and nutrition expert and author.

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Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth by Catherine Pakaluk: A portrait of America’s most interesting yet overlooked women.

In the midst of a historic “birth dearth,” why do some 5 percent of American women choose to defy the demographic norm by bearing five or more children? Hannah’s Children is a compelling portrait of these overlooked but fascinating mothers who, like the biblical Hannah, see their children as their purpose, their contribution, and their greatest blessing.

The social scientist Catherine Pakaluk, herself the mother of eight, traveled across the United States and interviewed fifty-five college-educated women who were raising five or more children. Through open-ended questions, she sought to understand who these women are, why and when they chose to have a large family, and what this choice means for them, their families, and the nation.

Hannah’s Children is more than interesting stories of extraordinary women. It presents information that is urgently relevant for the future of American prosperity. Many countries have experimented with aggressively pro-natalist public policies, and all of them have failed. Pakaluk finds that the quantitative methods to which the social sciences limit themselves overlook important questions of meaning and identity in their inquiries into fertility rates. Her book is a pathbreaking foray into questions of purpose, religion, transcendence, healing, and growth—questions that ought to inform economic inquiry in the future.

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The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend by Bob Drury, Tom Clavin: Exquisitely told . . . Remarkably detailed . . . The story of Red Cloud’s unusual guile and strategic genius makes the better-known Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse pale in comparison. . . . This is no knee-jerk history about how the West was won, or how the West was lost. This historical chronicle is unabashed, unbiased and disturbingly honest, leaving no razor-sharp arrowhead unturned, no rifle trigger unpulled. . . . A compelling and fiery narrative. – USA Today

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In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife by Sebastian Junger: A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on death—and what might follow—by the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm.

For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. “It’s okay,” his father said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ll take care of you.” That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived.

This experience spurred Junger—a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical—to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when forced to reckon with such existential questions?

In My Time of Dying is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery.

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The Measure by Nikki Erlick: One day, everyone on Earth receives a small wooden box bearing the inscription “The measure of your life lies within” and containing a length of string—with different lengths for different recipients. Terrified to contemplate how much time they have to live, people fall back frantically on past belief or forge bold new connections as debuter Erlick considers how best to live life. – Library Journal

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Memoir of the Sunday Brunch by Julia Pandl: For Julia Pandl, the rite of passage into young-adulthood included mandatory service at her family’s restaurant, where she watched as her father—who was also the chef—ruled with the strictness of a drill sergeant.

At age twelve, Julie was initiated into the rite of the Sunday brunch, a weekly madhouse at her father’s Milwaukee-based restaurant, where she and her eight older siblings before her did service in a situation of controlled chaos, learning the ropes of the family business and, more important, learning life lessons that would shape them for all the years to come. In her wry memoir, she looks back on those formative years, a time not just of growing up but, ultimately, of becoming a source of strength and support as the world her father knew began to change into a tougher, less welcoming place.

Part coming-of-age story a‘ la The Tender Bar, part win- dow into the mysteries of the restaurant business a‘ la Kitchen Confidential, Julie Pandl provides tender wisdom about the bonds between fathers and daughters and about the simple pleasures that lie in the daily ritual of breaking bread. This honest and exuberant memoir marks the debut of a writer who discovers that humor exists in even the smallest details of our lives and that the biggest moments we ever experience can happen behind the pancake station at the Sunday brunch.

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Swimming Back to Trout River: A Novel by Linda Rui Feng: “During the tumultuous years of China’s Cultural Revolution, 10-year-old Junie receives a letter from her parents in the United States promising to come retrieve her before her 12th birthday, but Junie doesn’t want to leave her grandparents or the Chinese countryside. Her reluctance could derail her parents’ plan, especially since long-buried family secrets and their individual struggles have already driven them apart.”—GOOD HOUSEKEEPING (25 Best Historical Fiction Books to Take You Back in Time)

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Videos:

All The Light We Cannot See (2023) (Netflix): In the final days of WWII, the paths of a blind French girl and a German soldier collide. Based on Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller.

The Bear, Season 2 (2024) (Hulu): A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a heartbreaking death in his family. A world away from what he’s used to, Carmy must balance the soul-crushing realities of small business ownership, his strong-willed and recalcitrant kitchen staff and his strained familial relationships, all while grappling with the impact of his brother’s suicide. As Carmy fights to transform both the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges kitchen crew that ultimately reveals itself as his chosen family. – IMDB Overview

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Book Club for Adults September – December Schedule:

September 13, 2024: Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian (320 pages) (copies of our Sept. read can be picked up at the library now!)

October 11, 2024: Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler (352 pages) 

November 8, 2024: The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez (331 pages) 

December 13, 2024: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (352 pages) 

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Have a great day everyone!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

reimerl@stls.org