Books we like 2004
The librarians assembly has released its list of "Books We Like" from 2005. The annual list has been published in previous years as an insert to the libraries' holiday greeting card. Following the chancellor's lead in 2005, the libraries did not produce holiday cards because of budget constraints. In lieu of this insert, the 2004 and recently released 2005 lists are available in this newsletter.
- Akunin, B., and Andrew Bromfield. Winter Queen: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2004.
In Czarist Russia, the naive but eager Erast Fandorin is a young investigator with the Moscow police. Why would a university student shoot himself in the middle of the Alexander Gardens? Fandorin sets out to find the answer and soon lands in the middle of a far-reaching international conspiracy.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PG3478 K78 A913 2004,.
- Akunin, B., and Andrew Bromfield. Murder on the Leviathan: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2004.
"The authors succeed the celebrated first novel about daring 19th-century Russian sleuth Erast Fandorin, The Winter Queen, with Murder on the Leviathan, in which the now former St. Petersburg investigator competes for center stage with a swell-headed French police commissioner, a crafty adventuress boasting more than her fair share of aliases, and a luxurious steamship that appears fated for deliberate destruction in the Indian Ocean."(Amazon.com)
MadCat no copies. LinkCat 14 copies and one audiobook.
- Ali, Monica. Brick Lane: A Novel. 1st Scribner ed. New York: Scribner, 2003.
Engaging narrative of a life left to a subtly manipulated fate. Surviving childhood, Nazneen is promised to the older Chanu--beginning marriage as a lonely new arrival to London. The novel keenly depicts Nazneen's challenge to determine a course for her life and to balance the many roles she feels compelled to play.
MadCat no copies. LinkCat 19 copies and 5 large print.
- Anderson, Joan. A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 1999.
In this accessible memoir, Anderson shares the joy and self-knowledge she found during her time of living in semi-isolation for a year in a cottage on Cape Cod. Feeling that her marriage has stagnated by the time her two sons were grown, Anderson surprises and distresses her husband by refusing to move out-of-state with him when he accepts a new job.
Historical Society Library Stacks F72.C3 A73 1999, LinkCat 17 copies.
- Aslam, Nadeem. Maps for Lost Lovers. 1st ed. New York: Knopf, 2005.
A daring, loving couple, presumed lost in an honor killing, serves as the thread that weaves through many tales of love, loss and family--as experienced by the bereaved. It is a tale of cultural and generational conflicts and the immigrant experience of a post-colonial UK. Compelling and beautifully crafted.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR9540.9 A83 M37 2004.
- Bascomb, Neal. The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less than Four Minutes to Achieve it. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2004.
Not just for runners! The story of three very different men, from England, the United States and Australia, training to be the first to run the mile in under four minutes. Aside from the personal stories, the book covers the history of long-distance running, life in post-war England, and the amateur sports system in the United States.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving GV1061.14 B38 2004, LinkCat 12 copies.
- Blunt, Judy. Breaking Clean. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
An autobiographical story of growing up on a western Montana ranch. The hardships of the land and the weather pale in comparison to the lack of control the author has when she becomes a teenage wife and mother trapped in a sexist marriage. Includes vivid descriptions of the land and people.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving CT275 B57984 A3 2002, LinkCat 23 copies.
- Burroughs, Augusten. Magical Thinking: True Stories. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004.
"Burroughs is mean and outrageously X-rated. If you can get past those two things, Burroughs might just be the most refreshing voice in American books today, and his collection of acerbic essays will have you laughing out loud even while cringing in your seat." (Amazon.com)
MadCat no copies. LinkCat 20 copies and three audiobooks.
- Burroughs, Augusten. Dry. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003.
Dry chronicles the author's near-fatal struggle with advertising and alcoholism.
Madcat College Library Open Book General, 1st Floor, Room 1250, PS3552 U745 Z465 2003, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving, LinkCat 22 coopies and four audiobooks.
- Burroughs, Augusten. Running with Scissors: A Memoir. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002.
Running with Scissors is about how the author's bi-polar mother gave custody of him to a disreputable psychiatrist with a pedophilic adopted son.
MadCat College Library Open Book General, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PS3552 U745 Z477 2003, LinkCat 37 copies and 7 audiobooks.
- Cilauro, Santo, Tom Gleisner, and Rob Sitch. Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press, 2004.
A satire on travel books.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PN6178 A8 M65 2004, no copies in LinkCat.
- Deutsch, Nathaniel. The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and Her World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
The story of a 19th century Russian Jewish woman who was the only Jewish woman to ever function as a Hasidic rebbe or charismatic leader in her own right. Also, how the author unravelled clues about her in archives, cemeteries and contemporary news accounts makes it a great text for anyone interested in how historians conduct their work.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving BM755 W395 D48 2003.
- Elphinstone, Margaret. Voyageurs: A Novel. New York, NY: Canongate U.S, 2003.
"Set largely in the wilds of the U.S.-Canadian border on the eve of the War of 1812, this novel celebrates persistence, integrity, and bonds between cultures. Mark Greenhow leaves home in England at the age of 23 to search for his younger sister, Rachel, who (with her aunt) took her Quaker ministry to Canada." (Booklist Review)
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6055 L68 V69 2003, LinkCat 3 copies.
- Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2002.
An epic family chronicle that centers around the life of a hermaphrodite, Cal/Calliope. Raised as a girl, we see her grow up and choose to pass as a man. Woven into his/her life are the stories of the burning of Smyrna, Greek immigrant life in America, the Nation of Islam, and Detroit in the 20th century.
College Library Open Book Fiction, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PS3555 U4 M53 2003, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3555 U4 M53 2002, LinkCat 46 copies, 5 audiobooks.
- Fforde, Jasper. Thursday Next in the Well of Lost Plots: A Novel. 1st American ed. New York: Viking, 2004.
Once again, it's up to Thursday Next, Britain's Prose Resource Operative, to track down the killer, save her pulp novel/temporary abode from being chucked into the Text Sea, and get back to her "real" life with her body (and memory, if it's not too much to ask) intact. When it comes to sheer wit, literate fantasy and effervescent originality, nothing can touch this new Ffordian tour de force.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6106 F67 W45 2003, LinkCat 28 copies and 7 audiobooks.
- Fforde, Jasper. Thursday Next in Something Rotten: A Novel. New York: Viking, 2004.
Fforde's fourth entry in the zany, hypercreative detective series. Aided by her father, Thursday is reinstated into her old employ, the Special Operations Network, and begins investigating the machinations of power-hungry Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine and the mysterious disappearance of England's president. Fforde's latest will have hardcore fans roaring—but those new to the series might want to tackle the convoluted mayhem from the very beginning.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6106 F67 T484 2004, LinkCat 22 copies and five audiobooks.
- Flagg, Fannie. Standing in the Rainbow: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2002.
The author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe produces a sprawling, feel-good novel. In tiny Elmwood Springs, Mo., the protagonist is 10-year-old Bobby Smith. In 1946, Harry Truman presides over a victorious nation anticipating a happy and prosperous future. During the next several decades, the plot expands to include numerous beguiling characters who interact with the Smith family.
None in MadCat, LinkCat 69 copies and 18 audiobooks.
- Flagg, Fannie. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1998.
A sentimental look at small-town life featuring Dena Nordstrom, a New York TV show hostess. Sent by her doctor home to Missouri to nurse her ulcer, she hopes to learn why her mother abandoned her when she was 15 years old.
College Library Open Book Fiction, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PS3556 L26 W45 1999, LinkCat 69 copies and 21 audiobooks.
- Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
A fisherman's daughter in 1930s Japan rises to become a famous geisha. After training, Sayuri's virginity is sold to the highest bidder, then the school finds her a general for a patron. When he dies, she is reunited with the only man she loved. Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3557 O35924 M46 1997, LinkCat 24 copies, 32 audiobooks.
- Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
Autistic 15-year-old Christopher comes across his neighbor's dog speared by a garden implement. The owner finds Christopher holding her dead dog, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher decides to try to discover who killed the dog. At one point he even has to travel to London alone, and you're with him every step of the way, as you find yourself beginning to see the world through his eyes.
College Library Open Book Fiction, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PZ7 H1165 Cu 2004, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6058 A245 C87 2003, LinkCat 74 copies and 17 audiobooks.
- Hamilton, Hugo. The Speckled People: A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood. 1st 4th Estate U.S. pbk. ed. New York: Fourth Estate, 2004.
This memoir captures, via a child's manner of discourse, the experience of a bi-cultural heritage—German, Irish—in 1950s Dublin. Themes of Irish nationalism, post-war persecution of German expatriates/refugees and the cultural conflict and blend of languages serve to qualify the narrator's perceptions of family, home and country.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6058 A5526 Z47 2003b, LinkCat three copies.
- Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf:; Distributed by Random House, 2002.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. In his first novel for a younger audience, Hiaasen plunges readers right into the middle of an ecological mystery, made up of endangered miniature owls, a proposed pancake house, and the owls' unlikely allies--three middle school kids determined to beat the screwed-up adult system.
School of Library/Info Studies. General Collection C+ H52h, LinkCat 42 copies.
- Horsley, Kate. Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel. 1st ed. Boston; New York: Shambhala; Distributed in the U.S. by Random House, 2001.
"The fictional memoir of Gwynneve, a nun of St. Bridget's Convent during Ireland's Dark Ages. ... Horsley portrays Gwynneve's time as a battleground of profound, complex, and bloody cultural conflict, when a recognizably modern form of Christianity first gained ascendancy over rival sects and over the country's older Celtic traditions. This powerful little book is not for lightweight, fainthearted or doctrinaire readers, but it will be deeply satisfying for many." (School Library Journal Review)
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3558 O6976 C66 2001, LinkCat ten copies.
- Hosseini, Khal. The Kite Runner. 1st Riverhead trade pbk. ed. New York: Riverhead Books, 2004.
"His passionate story of betrayal and redemption is framed by Afghanistan's tragic recent past ... Rather than settle for a coming-of-age or travails-of-immigrants story, Hosseini has folded them both into this searing spectacle of hard-won personal salvation. All this, and a rich slice of Afghan culture too: irresistible." (Kirkus Review)
Location: College Library Open Book Fiction, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PS3608 O832 K58 2004, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3608 O525 K58 2003, LinkCat 34 copies three audiobooks.
- Ishiguro, Kazuo. An Artist of the Floating World. New York: Putnam's, 1986.
"In An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro offers readers of the English language an authentic look at postwar Japan, 'a floating world' of changing cultural behaviors, shifting societal patterns and troubling questions." (Amazon.com)
College Library Reserve Collection, 1st Fl. West, Room 1191 PR6059 S5 A89 1989, LinkCat two copies.
- Jacobs, A. J. The Know-it-all: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
While working for "Entertainment Weekly" magazine, author A.J. Jacobs finds his mind filling with pop culture and feels he is losing his grip on "real" knowledge. Jacobs decides to remedy the situation by reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica from cover to cover, A to Z. In this humor-filled book, Jacobs provides an alphabetical account of some of the bizarre information he discovers.
LinkCat 11 copies and three audiobooks.
- Jelinek, Elfriede. The Piano Teacher: A Novel. 1st American ed. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
Note(s): Translation of: Die Klavierspielerin.;
"The Piano Teacher is an exploration of fascism, not so much in the political sense as in the personal. In Joachim Neugroschel's excellent translation, the language is simple yet full of imaginative, often funny metaphors, the view of the world original, if at times almost painfully bizarre." (New York Times Book Review)
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PT2670 E46 K513 1988, LinkCat three copies and one DVD.
- Jiménez, Francisco. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. 1st ed. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3560 I55 C57 1997, LinkCat 35 copies.
- Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies: Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Stories about Indians in India and America. The story "A Temporary Matter" is on mixed marriage, "Mrs. Sen's" is on the adaptation of an immigrant to the United States and in the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors.
College Library Reserve Collection, 1st Fl. West, Room 1191 PS3562 A316 I58 1999, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3562 A316 I58 1999, LinkCat 32 copies, 2 audiobooks.
- Leon, Donna. Death at La Fenice. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.
"A lively launch of a projected series of Venetian mysteries. When legendary German conductor Helmut Wellauer is found dead in his dressing room two acts into a performance of La Traviata, police commissario Guido Brunetti is called in. ...The narrative's best moments involve Brunetti's wry exchanges with his colleagues and the cunningly masked, obvious solution." (Publisher's Weekly)
MadCat no copies. LinkCat 13 copies and 2 audiobooks.
- Letts, Billie. The Honk and Holler Opening Soon. New York: Warner Books, 1998.
Vietnam vet Caney Paxton owns the "Honk & Holler Opening Soon" diner and has his life turned upside down by the arrival of Vena Takes Horse, a thirtyish car-hop with a three-legged dog. Great characters, with many twists and turns.
None in MadCat, LinkCat 32 copies.
- Lodge, David. Nice Work. 1st American ed. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Viking, 1989.
A hilarious send-up of what happens when a feminist-Marxist literature professor shadows an engineering plant manager in Thatcher's Britain.
College Library Inactive Reserves, 1st Fl. West, Rm 1191 PR6062 O36 N5 1990, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6062 O36 N5 1988, LinkCat four copies.
- McGregor, Jon. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2002.
This novel has two narratives: the story of a single day in the lives of the residents of one street somewhere in England, including an eccentric young man who burns with unrequited love for one of his neighbors, and the story of the aforementioned beloved young woman years later, after she learns she is pregnant. McGregor creates characters that brim with life and substance through exquisitely detailed descriptions of their lives and memories.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6113 C48 I33 2002, LinkCat eight copies.
- Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas: A Novel. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004.
This incredible book is made up of six strands which reach back into the 19th century, to colonialism and savagery in the Pacific islands, and forward into a dark future, beyond the collapse of civilization. The strands, each with its own narrative style, are fitted into one another like Russian nesting dolls and are all ingeniously connected by the end.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6063 I785 C56 2004b. LinkCat 6 copies.
- Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2003.
For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women, all former students whom she had taught at university, at her house every Thursday morning to discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, about the novels they were reading and also about themselves. A fascinating glimpse of women's lives in revolutionary Iran.
College Library Women's Collection, 3rd Floor, Room 3250 PE64 N34 A3 2003, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PE64 N34 A3 2003, LinkCat 40 copies and 12 audiobooks.
- Niffenegger, Audrey. The Time Traveler's Wife: A Novel. San Francisco, CA: MacAdam/Cage, 2003.
A Chicago archivist flips backward and forward in time, causing amusement and difficulties for all involved. The book really is not fantasy or science fiction--it can be read as a study of a modern couple dealing with a serious problem.
College Library Open Book Fiction, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PS3564 I362 T56 2003b, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3564 I362 T56 2003, LinkCat 60 copies and 6 audiobooks.
- Pall, Ellen. Corpse De Ballet: A Nine Muses Mystery: Terpsichore. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur Press, 2001.
A cozy mystery with interesting characters that gives a fascinating glimpse of the inner workings of a ballet company and the creation of a ballet. The amateur detective is a writer of historical romances, and the book provides insight into that career as well.
None in MadCat, LinkCat 13 copies.
- Park, Barbara, and Denise Brunkus. Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. New York: Random House, 1992.
In her own words, a young girl describes her feelings about starting kindergarten and what she does when she decides not to ride the bus home. Many excellent, funny stories in the series about Junie B. Jones.
LinkCat 53 copies and 15 audiobooks.
- Patchett, Ann. The Magician's Assistant. 1st ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997.
Just before dying, magician Parsifal of Los Angeles married his assistant, Sabine, who knew nothing of his private life, veiled in mystery. Not wanting to be an ignorant widow, Sabine sets out to learn who Parsifal was outside the world of illusion.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3566 A7756 M34 1997, LinkCat 22 copies.
- Pawel, Rebecca. Death of a Nationalist. New York; London: Soho; Turnaround, 2004.
An accomplished first novel, an accurately detailed thriller set at the end of the Spanish Civil War where an officer in Franco's army becomes involved with the daughter of a dissident.
LinkCat five copies.
- Picoult, Jodi. Salem Falls. New York: Pocket Books, 2001.
Jack McBride, accused of raping one of the girls on his soccer team at an all-girl's prep school, spends time in prison for a crime he didn't commit. When released, he starts a job as a dish-washer in a small town diner and life seems to be getting better, until four teenage girls involved with witchcraft start the nightmare all over again.
College Library Open Book Fiction, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PS3566 I372 S26 2002, LinkCat 20 copies.
- Pierre, D. B. C. Vernon God Little. New York, NY: Canongate, 2003.
There has just been a terrible school shooting in the fictional town of Martirio, Texas, and it looks like 15-year-old Vernon will be taking the rap. This witty parody of American culture even has a death-row reality TV show thrown in. Vernon, whose cynicism and smart-ass bravado can't completely disguise his underlying vulnerability and sweetness, is like a Holden Caulfield for the new millennium.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6116 I355 V47 2003, LinkCat 13 copies.
- Proulx, Annie. That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel. New York: Scribner, 2002.
"Bob Dollar, a reluctant land swindler, signs on as a location scout for Global Pork Rind, an industrial hog farming corporation. His assignment is to infiltrate a tiny town in the Texas Panhandle and find a tract of land. ... The narrative follows Bob's hapless quest to ink a deal, but Proulx's mission is bigger than that. She's out to tell the story of the Panhandle itself, to write an entirely new literary territory into existence." (Amazon.com)
College Library Open Book Fiction, 1st Floor, Room 1250 PS3566 R697 T48 2003, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3566 R697 T48 2002, LinkCat 37 copies and 22 audiobooks.
- Revoyr, Nina. Southland. New York: Akashic Books, 2003.
"Revoyr (The Necessary Hunger) returns to the gritty, central Los Angeles of her debut with this compelling if overlong tale of a headstrong Japanese-American lesbian law student obsessed with discovering her family history and solving a murder mystery. ... Somewhat overplotted but never lacking in vivid detail and authentic atmosphere, the novel cements Revoyr's reputation as one of the freshest young chroniclers of life in Los Angeles." (Publisher's Weekly)
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3568 E7964 S68 2003, LinkCat seven copies.
- Ruiz Zafon, Carlos, and Lucia Graves. The Shadow of the Wind. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
"In post-World War II Barcelona, young Daniel is taken by his bookseller father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a massive sanctuary where books are guarded from oblivion. Told to choose one book to protect, he selects The Shadow of the Wind, by Julian Carax. He reads it, loves it and soon learns it is both very valuable and very much in danger ... Part detective story, part boy's adventure, part romance, fantasy and gothic horror, the intricate plot is urged on by extravagant foreshadowing and nail-nibbling tension." (Booklist Review)
LinkCat 9 copies.
- Sage, Lorna. Bad Blood. 1st ed. New York: Morrow, 2000.
This wickedly funny, ruthless, yet endearing memoir recounts an observant childhood spent among bickering familiars in rural Wales. It is the author's coming-of-age, of bookish interests, mistakes made, and eventual acceptance and redemption.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PN75 S24 A3 2000, LinkCat 9 copies.
- Sakai, Stan. Usagi Yojimbo. Nothampton, MA: Mirage Pub, 1993-1994.
Stan Sakai has created Usagi (Japanese for rabbit) Yojimbo as a comic series collected into 18 or so book size anthologies. Usagi is a ronin (masterless samurai) of feudal times in Japan, and the episodes are adventures, mysteries, spy stories or comedic by turns. This is a young adult story with many elements enjoyable by adults. Characters are portrayed as various anthropomorphic animals.
LinkCat 18 volumes, 1 to 5 copies each.
- Schaeffer, Susan Fromberg. The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat. 1st ed. New York: A.A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1997.
A cat compares his view of the world with that of humans and dogs. For one, it is much easier to fall into a washing machine. As he dispenses his philosophy, Foudini describes "his" people and "his" dog.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3569 C35 A9 1997, LinkCat seven copies and three audiobooks.
- Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle. 1st ed. ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1948.
Charming tale of a young girl growing up in a decrepit English castle with a dysfunctional family. The budding author's life opens up when an American family moves in next door.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6037 M38 I2 2004, PR6037 M38 I2 1996, PZ3 S64527 I, LinkCat 28 copies, 7 audiobooks, video and dvd.
- Stefaniak, Mary Helen. The Turk and My Mother: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.
This story of a Croatian family, told with poignancy and humor, moves back and forth through time from the early 1900s to the present and through setting from a Croatian village to Siberia to Milwaukee.
LinkCat nine copies.
- Van Pelt, Elizabeth Cohen. The Family on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting ( also Published as "House on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting"). New York: Random House, 2004.
LinkCat 16 copies.
- Willett, Jincy. Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and really Bad Weather. 1st ed. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2003.
In this witty and literary black comedy, a middle-aged librarian who prefers books to people recounts her life with her bawdy twin sister, their mutual relationship with an abusive man and her passion for reading in 1980s Rhode Island.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3573 I4455 W56 2003, LinkCat 14 copies, 2 in large print.
- Willett, Jincy. Jenny and the Jaws of Life: Short Stories. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987.
"A character sounds the anthem for this collection when she observes that 'real life just happens, whereas stories make sense.' Trapped in the chaos of life, Willett's people ... still try to make sense of its 'pointless mess.' ... Willett skirts life's heartless ironies lightly and with wit." (Library Journal)
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PS3573 I4455 J4 1987, LinkCat four copies.
- Winterson, Jeanette. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit. 1st American ed. New York, N.Y: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987.
"Raised by an oppressively evangelical mother, Jeanette ... would have remained in the fold but for her unconventional desires; though she can reconcile her love of women with her love of God, the church cannot. ... A wry and tender telling of a young girl's triumphantly coming into her own." (Library Journal)
College Library Women's Collection, 3rd Floor, Room 3250 PR6073 I558 O7 1987, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving PR6073 I558 O7 1984, LinkCat four copies, one video.
- Yancey, Richard. Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS. 1st ed. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2004.
Yancey spent 12 years working for the Internal Revenue Service as a revenue officer. In this book, he provides an insider's look at how the IRS goes about collecting overdue taxes, his quirky co-workers and their bitter office politics and how the stress of working as a dreaded and feared taxman affects his personal life.
Historical Society Library Stacks HJ2361 .Y36 2004, LinkCat 13 copies.