Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

 

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath.

On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

 

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny?

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant—this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.

529 page (April 2013)

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Title Read-alikes: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton; The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North; Time and Time Again by Ben Elton; The Midnight Library by Matt Haig; 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson; The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by Victoria Schwab; The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; Replay by Ken Grimwood; The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck; The Mothers by Brit Bennett; Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo; Blackout by Connie Willis; and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

“What are you reading?”

That’s the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, often in six months or less.

This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues they discuss include questions of faith and courage as well as everyday topics such as expressing gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they are constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying.

Will and Mary Anne share their hopes and concerns with each other—and rediscover their lives—through their favorite books. When they read, they aren’t a sick person and a well person, but a mother and a son taking a journey together. The result is a profoundly moving tale of loss that is also a joyful, and often humorous, celebration of life: Will’s love letter to his mother, and theirs to the printed page.

336 pages (October 2012)

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Will Schwalbe on why he wrote The End of  Your Life Book Club (Hodder Books):

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Title Read-alikes: Latest Readings by Clive James; The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper; My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman; Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi; The Things That Need Doing by Sean Manning; Browsings by Michael Dirda; Books by Larry McMurtry; The Last Season by Stuart Stevens; Driving Miss Norma by Tim Bauerschmidt; Dear Life by Rachel Clarke; The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood; How Shall I Tell the Dog? by Miles Kington; and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

From the internationally best-selling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, comes Mohsin Hamid's How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.

 

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. is the astonishing and riveting tale of a man's journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon. It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis (an unnamed contemporary city in “rising Asia") where he begins to amass an empire built on that most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises along with his, their paths crossing and recrossing, a lifelong affair sparked and snuffed and sparked again by the forces that careen their fates along. 

 

Stealing its shape from the self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over “rising Asia,” the novel is genre-bending and playful but also reflective and profound in its portrayal of the thirst for ambition and love in a time of shattering economic and social upheaval. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid's third novel, confirms that this radically inventive storyteller is among the most important of today's international writers.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is a striking slice of contemporary life at a time of crushing upheaval. Romantic without being sentimental, political without being didactic, and spiritual without being religious, it brings an unflinching gaze to the violence and hope it depicts. And it creates two unforgettable characters who find moments of transcendent intimacy in the midst of shattering change.

228 pages (March 2013)

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Title Read-alikes: Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser; A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee; This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz; The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer; NW by Zadie Smith; Love by Toni Morrison; Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelo; The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen; Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan; Street of Eternal Happiness by Rob Schmitz; Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan; A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Moshammed Hanif; and A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

The riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed, and betrayed by passion and desire for a world beyond her own.

 

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor's Children, a brilliant new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed, and betrayed by passion and desire for a world beyond her own.  

Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago compromised her dream to be a successful artist, mother and lover. She has instead become the “woman upstairs,” a reliable friend and neighbor always on the fringe of others’ achievements. Then into her life arrives the glamorous and cosmopolitan Shahids—her new student Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale, and his parents: Skandar, a dashing Lebanese professor who has come to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard, and Sirena, an effortlessly alluring Italian artist.

When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies, Nora is drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family; she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora’s happiness explodes her boundaries, and she discovers in herself an unprecedented ferocity—one that puts her beliefs and her sense of self at stake.

Told with urgency, intimacy and piercing emotion, this brilliant novel of passion and artistic fulfillment explores the intensity, thrill—and the devastating cost—of embracing an authentic life.

253 pages (April 2013)

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Claire Messud reads from and discusses The Woman Upstairs-Part 1 (The Center for Fiction):

Claire Messud reads from and discusses The Woman Upstairs-Part 2 (The Center for Fiction):

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Title Read-alikes: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh; The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt; The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold; The Blue Guitar by John Banvile; Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier; Exhibit Alexandra by Natasha Bell; Luster by Raven Leilani; Indiscretion by Charles Dubow; The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood; Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng; The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine; Life After Life by Kate Atkinson; and The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

From bestselling author Meg Wolitzer a dazzling, panoramic novel about what becomes of early talent, and the roles that art, money, and even envy can play in close friendships.

The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.

The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.

Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.

468 pages (April 2013)

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13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

 

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Meg Wolitzer in Conversation with Delia Ephron (New York Society Library):

 

Meg Wolitzer reads from The Interestings at Eat, Drink & Be Literary (BAMorg):

 

Meg Wolitzer at The Moth: First Love, Long Island 1975:

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Title Read-alikes: The Ensemble by Aja Gabel; Invincible Summer by Alice Adams; Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam; Two Across by Jeffrey Bartsch; Expectation by Anna Hope; Close to Hugh by Marina Endicott; Freedom by Jonathan Franzen; Trust Exercise by Susan Choi; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante; Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt; and Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator's Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.

402 Pages (January 2013)

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Title Read-alikes: The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott; The Women by T. Coraghessan Boyle; Loving Frank by Nancy Horan; Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck; The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve; Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini; Z by Therese Fowler; Against Wind and Tide by Anne Morrow Lindbergh; Private Life by Jane Smiley; Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict; Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan; Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline; and Circling the Sun by Paula McLain.

The World's Strongest Librarian: a memoir of Tourette's, faith, strength, and the power of family by Josh Hanagarne

Josh Hanagarne couldn’t be invisible if he tried. Although he wouldn’t officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh was six years old and onstage in a school Thanksgiving play when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was twenty, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6’7” when—while serving on a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints—his Tourette’s tics escalated to nightmarish levels.

Determined to conquer his affliction, Josh underwent everything from quack remedies to lethargy-inducing drug regimes to Botox injections that paralyzed his vocal cords and left him voiceless for three years. Undeterred, Josh persevered to marry and earn a degree in Library Science. At last, an eccentric, autistic strongman—and former Air Force Tech Sergeant and guard at an Iraqi prison—taught Josh how to “throttle” his tics into submission through strength-training.

Today, Josh is a librarian in the main branch of Salt Lake City’s public library and founder of a popular blog about books and weight lifting—and the proud father of four-year-old Max, who has already started to show his own symptoms of Tourette’s.

The World’s Strongest Librarian illuminates the mysteries of this little-understood disorder, as well as the very different worlds of strongman training and modern libraries. With humor and candor, this unlikely hero traces his journey to overcome his disability— and navigate his wavering Mormon faith—to find love and create a life worth living.

291 pages. (May 2013)

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Title Read-alikes: The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin; Twitch and Shout by Lowell Handler; Against Medical Advice by James Patterson; Front of the Class by Brad Cohen; Ticked by James A. Fussell; Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen; Running the Books by Avi Steinberg; Dear Marcus by Jerry McGill; The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe; Not a Poster Child by Francine Falk-Allen; The Day My Brain Exploded by Ashok Rajamani; Gulp by Mary Roach; and This Book is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson.

Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.

Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby’s parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott’s, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda’s irresistible story as she herself might have told it.

375 pages. (March 2013)

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"'Z' Tells The Fitzgeralds' Story From Zelda's Point Of View" (Author Interview) from npr

Book Trailer (St. Martin's Press):

This title is available for download as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante; The Paris Wife by Paula McLain; Beautiful Fools by R. Clifton Spargo; What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen; Wintering by Kate Moses; The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin; Guests on Earth by Lee Smith; Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck; The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott; Tiffany Blues by M. J. Rose; Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan; and The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty.