BOOKSHELF
December Books
FICTION Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, looks into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silence of a town controlled by the church. Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism and empathy. The Echo Chamber, by John Boyne The members of the Cleverley family all have mobile phones and live a gilded life, little realizing how precarious their privilege is — just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing — in his words, a “national treasure.” His wife, Beverley, is a celebrated novelist, though not as celebrated as she would like. Each of their three children is a catastrophe waiting to happen. Together the Cleverlys go on a journey of discovery through the jungle of modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. To err is human but, to really foul things up, you only need a phone. The Echo Chamber is a satiric, dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. NONFICTION Micro Life: Miracles of the Miniature World Revealed, by D.K. Publishing With spectacular macro photography and microscope images, Micro Life reveals a hidden, living world full of intricate structures beyond the naked eye. Included are the tiniest insects and spiders, but looking deeper, you will discover truly microscopic creatures — even bacteria and viruses. Earth is home to more microbes than any other living organism. Bacteria on Earth outweigh humans by 1,100 to 1 and, without them, all world ecosystems would collapse. This book reveals this vital, unseen realm, but includes large life-forms, The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
too. You can wonder at the beauty of a pollen grain, a butterfly egg, the spore of a fungus, and the nerve cell of a human in extreme close-up. The biology builds into a reference on how all organisms, however small, solve the basic problems of movement, reproduction, energy, communication and defense. Bunny Mellon Style, by Linda Jane Huffman, Bryan Huffman, Thomas Lloyd Learn how Mellon’s style developed, take a look inside the family homes she designed, get the flavor of her collaborations with French designers of fashion and jewelry, and begin to understand her vast and lasting influence on the world of 20th century design. Original research included Mellon’s personal writings and correspondence, conversations with people who knew and worked with her, and those who spent time in her home and gardens. From published works, they gathered information about personal relationships between Mellon and Jackie Kennedy Onassis; designers Billy Baldwin, Balenciaga, Givenchy; and more. Blending stories and accounts from a wide variety of viewpoints results in a unique perspective of this extraordinary woman who moved in the upper echelon of society but preferred not to be noticed in the public eye. The President and the Freedom Fighter, by Brian Kilmeade In The President and the Freedom Fighter, Kilmeade tells the little known story of how two American heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship, and in the process changed the entire course of history. Abraham Lincoln was white and born impoverished on a frontier farm. Frederick Douglass was Black and a child of slavery who risked his life escaping to freedom. Neither man had a formal education, and neither had an easy path to influence. No one would have expected them to become friends — or to transform the country. Sharing little more than the conviction that slavery was wrong, the two men’s paths eventually converged. As he did in George Washington’s Secret Six, Kilmeade has transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out how these two heroes, through their principles and patience, not only changed each other, but made America free for all. PineStraw
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