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Being "green" or environmentally friendly is not only important, but becoming more popular as well. Check out these books to see how some people are going "green" in different aspects of their lives. Animals Join us this month as we review books about a favorite topic – our animal friends. Celebrate the Irish! Every American is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. In celebration, Reader's Club presents reviews of books about Ireland and the Irish, and Irish-Americans. We hope you will be inspired to pick up one of these titles.   Here is an excerpt from "The Diane Rehm Show" host Diane Rehm's review of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan:
As one who was never a true "reader" until I hit my twenties, and then as one who began to read for a living, and has since read, or at least skimmed, thousands of books, it's very difficult to focus on one in particular. Looking back, however, the ones that got me started were rather curious choices: Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, and The Essays of Alfred North Whitehead were two I moved through (admittedly, very slowly), while I worked as a secretary at the Department of State. Then I jumped into Crime and Punishment, feeling the need to catch up with what others my age had been reading years earlier. After marriage, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique awakened in me the possibilities of life outside the shelter of my home, offering up prospects I'd never allowed myself to dream. She was - and is - a true motivator. Since then, the series of novels by C.P. Snow, particularly The Masters, and Alan Payton's Cry The Beloved Country have become extraordinary favorites of mine. On a more contemporary basis, E.L. Doctorow's Loon Lake and The Cider House Rules by John Irving are glorious reading. And perhaps two of my very favorites are by Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye. Reading has created a world of connections for me, connections to my own life and to the lives of others around me. I see and recognize that so much of fiction, admittedly produced by the art of the imagination, is based in the reality around us. I have learned so much from my reading over the years. My only sadness is that I did not begin to enjoy reading earlier in my life. Read more Celebrity Reviews  
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After the success of The Color of Water, McBride turned to fiction, publishing Miracle at St. Anna in 2002 and Song Yet Sung in 2008. Miracle at St. Anna is currently in production as a major motion picture directed by Spike Lee, with the screenplay written by McBride. McBride, a former staff writer for The Washington Post, People Magazine and The Boston Globe, is also an accomplished saxophonist who has toured with renowned jazz singers and musicians. He has written music and lyrics for Anita Baker, Grover Washington, Jr., Gary Burton, and for the PBS television character "Barney." McBride is a native New Yorker. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. He is married with three children and currently resides in Pennsylvania and New York.
Read our James McBride Interview “Growing up, I was your classic bookworm — nose always stuck in some book or another — and I’m still a bit like that today. Reading is just such a basic part of my life, that if I went a day without reading something, anything, I think that I would go mad. I would probably end up reading the back of the cereal box or my shampoo bottle or something crazy like that! I’ve loved books since I was teeny-tiny; one of my earliest memories is of sitting on my mom’s lap and listening to her read fairy tales to me (maybe this is why I love fantasy so much!). I tease my husband about watching all those reality television shows, and he teases me about “checking out half the library” and lugging home so many books to read. What can I say? A day without books, to me, is like a day without the sun. I read pretty much everything — fantasy, science fiction, graphic novels, mysteries, romances, non-fiction, humor, biographies, young adult fiction, and of course, juvenile fiction — except for horror, true crime, and westerns (somehow, I never really got into those genres). With my job, I have the privilege of reading more juvenile fiction than anything else; some of my favorite children’s and young adult authors are: Lloyd Alexander, Joan Aiken, Ludwig Bemelmans, Susan Cooper, Roald Dahl, Julie Reece Deaver, Edward Eager, Cornelia Funke, Karen Hesse, Madeleine, L’ Engle, Gail Carson Levine, Patricia MacLachlan, William Pene du Bois, John Scieszka, Dr. Seuss, and Vivian Vande Velde. Some of my favorite adult fiction and non-fiction authors are: Susan Wittig Albert, Donna Andrews, R. Scott Brunner, Charles De Lint, Carole Nelson Douglas, Janet Evanovich, Anne Fadiman, Julie Garwood, Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, Jeff Smith (author of the “Bone” graphic novels), and Bailey White. I’m thankful for some of the truly great teachers and professors that I’ve had who opened my eyes to so many different authors, and I’m extremely thankful to my parents for teaching me the love of reading. I really enjoy sharing my favorite books with others, and I look on writing reviews as just another way of telling people about the latest, greatest book I’ve read. Now if I could only enjoy doing laundry the same way that I enjoy reading, then I’d be set.” |
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James McBride is an award-winning writer and composer. His critically acclaimed memoir, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, won the 1997 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Literary Excellence and an ALA Notable Book of the Year, spent more than two years on the bestseller list, and is now required reading at numerous colleges and high schools across the country. 
Amanda, a youth specialist at Sugar Creek Branch, is our reviewer of the month. She is an avid reader and frequent contributor of thoughtful fiction reviews for both adults and teens. Here is what Amanda has to share with us: