MASSBOOK MUST-READS ANNOUNCED

Support Massachusetts authors and read the books selected for the Massachusetts Must-Read list for
2014!  The four categories are Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Children's/Young Adult.  These books created by Massachusetts authors and books about Massachusetts have been chosen because they will lead to conversations in the community.

The titles currently available in Minuteman are linked to our catalog so you can place a request and read a summary of the book and it's reviews.  Contact the library if you would like to request a title that is not currently in the catalog.

Pick up one of these titles today and share with your friends and book groups.

Fiction
Along the Watchtower, David Litwack (Double Dragon)
The Celestials, Karen Shepard (Tin House)
The Hanging Judge, Michael Ponsor (Open Road Media)
News from Heaven, Jennifer Haigh (Harper)
Together Tea, Marjan Kamali (Ecco)
Vatican Waltz, Roland Merullo (Crown)

NonfictionBook of Ages, Jill Lepore (Knopf)
A Fort of Nine Towers, Qais Akbar Omar (FSG)
Breach of Trust, Andrew Bacevich (Metropolitan)
The Last Train to Zona Verde, Paul Theroux (HMH)
Margaret Fuller, Megan Marshall (HMH)
Miss Anne in Harlem, Carla Kaplan (Harper)






Poetry

Belmont, Stephen Burt (Graywolf)
Boy Singing to Cattle, Mark D. Hart (Pearl Editions)
Frost in the Low Areas, Karen Skolfield (Zone 3 Press )
Grass Whistle, Amy Dryansky (Salmon)
Inside the Splintered Wood, Myles Gordon (Tebot Bach )
Strange Borderlands, Ben Berman (Able Muse)
  

Children's/Young Adult
The Extra, Kathryn Lasky (Candlewick)
White Fur Flying, Patricia MacLachlan (McElderry/S&S)
Journey, Aaron Becker (Candlewick)
Garden Princess, Kristin Kladstrup (Candlewick)
The First Drawing, Mordicai Gerstein (Little, Brown BYR)
A Place for Turtles, Melissa Stewart (Peachtree) 





SH

Massachusetts Book Awards Must Read for 2013

The Must Read Books for 2013 have just been announced by the Massachusetts Center for the Book.  From this list of 2012 published books by a Massachusetts author or about a Massachusetts subject, a winner will will be chosen in late April to reign as the Mass Book winner for 2013 in each of 4 categories.

Some nominated books from each category include:

Fiction
The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro
The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

Non-Fiction
Brothers by George Howe Colt
Autumn in the Heavenly by Stephen R. Platt

Poetry
Shortly Thereafter by Colin Halloran 
What is Amazing by Heather Christle

Children's/Young Adult
Red Thread Sisters by Carol Antoinette Peacock
There Goes Ted Williams--the Greatest Hitter that Ever Lived by Matt Tavares

Don't wait to check out the other titles and place your requests for these titles.  

If you have read any of these, which would you place your vote for to win this wonderful award?  Please leave a reply here to promote your favorite title!

SH

Massachusetts Book Awards Announced

Books by Massachusetts authors or books with a Massachusetts theme published in the previous year are eligible to be selected for the Massachusetts Book Awards. The 9th Annual Award was announced on June 22 and the winners were:

Fiction

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famous Sarajevo Haggadah, which was rescued during the Bosnian war. When Hanna discovers a series of tiny artifacts in the book's ancient binding, she begins to unlock its mysteries.



Non-Fiction

Snow Falling in Spring by Moying Li

In 1966 Moying, a student at a prestigious language school in Beijing, seems destined for a promising future. Everything changes when student Red Guards begin to orchestrate brutal assaults, violent public humiliations, and forced confessions. After watching her teachers and headmasters beaten in public, Moying flees school for the safety of home, only to witness her beloved grandmother denounced, her home ransacked, her father’s precious books flung onto the back of a truck, and Baba himself taken away. From labor camp, Baba smuggles a reading list of banned books to Moying so that she can continue to learn. Now, with so much of her life at risk, she finds sanctuary in the world of imagination and learning.

This inspiring memoir follows Moying Li from age twelve to twenty-two, illuminating a complex, dark time in China’s history as it tells the compelling story of one girl’s difficult but determined coming-of-age during the Cultural Revolution. (Publisher Description)

Poetry

The Ghost Soldiers by James Tate.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Tate returns with his fifteenth book of poetry, an exciting new collection that offers nearly one hundred fresh and thought-provoking pieces that embody Tate's trademark style and voice: his accessibility, his dark humor, and his exquisite sense of the absurd. Tate's work is stark-he writes in clear, everyday language-yet his seemingly simple and macabre stories are layered with broad and trenchant meaning. His characters are often lost or confused, his settings bizarre, his scenarios brilliantly surreal. Opaque, inscrutable people float through a dreamlike world where nothing is as it seems. The Ghost Soldiers offers resounding proof, once again, that Tate stands alone in American poetry.

Other book recommendations may be found at the Massachusetts Center for the Book web site. SH

Don't know what to read?

Since the holidays we have had even more patrons asking, "Can you recommend a good book?" The Massachusetts Center for the Book has "Recommended Reading from the 8th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards" lists for the whole family. These lists include:

• Fiction list,
  
• Nonfiction list,
  
• Poetry list, and
• Children's/YA lit list.

Not only are the award winners with annotations provided, there are Highly Recommended titles for you to peruse as well. The site also provides several book discussion guides which would be useful for book groups.

So browse or print out the lists. When you are looking for "a good book," this is another place to look. SH