What We’re Reading This Week

JESSICA
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been terrified by a book. Jennifer McMahon’s new novel is an exceptional fright fest! With plenty of brilliantly disturbing images that have been burned permanently into my brain (skinning of humans, little girls with strange appetites, a heavily boarded up closet and a mysterious cave), you won’t be able to put this exquisite nightmare down!”

ABBY
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Required Reading Required Revisited Book Club meets on Sunday, April 13 at 5PM to discuss this book. Free and open to the public! 

“This is the first YA book I’ve ever read. It took a while to get back into the frame of mind of a teenager. I was reading the book and was shocked at what was going on. ‘What? Kids are taking drugs? Kids are having sex?’ Then, I remembered that those were my favorite things to do as a teenager. Once I made that shift, I began to really enjoy it. Despite being unwilling to be labeled a ‘young adult’ junkie, I was craving more. I can’t recommend this book enough. The drama can’t be matched. It’s pure brain candy.”

BEN
White Teeth by Zadie Smith

“Set in London, this novel blisters along right from the first page. Funny and original, I’ve developed the habit of interrupting people around me so that I can read them lines aloud. Following the friendship of Archibald and Samad from World War II to the present day, Smith examines the dilemmas that confront different generations of immigrants as they integrate into a new and different society. Told from several viewpoints, this book has been a difficult one for me to stop reading. It propels you forward with a satisfying mix of satire and pathos. Also, I am significantly more aware of the state of my oral hygiene. But don’t worry, it’s not all Zadie Smith’s fault. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris (due out May 13th) has a role to play in this…”

KATIE P.
Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel

“This is Finkel’s second book about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; his first, The Good Soldiers, was written whilst he was embedded with soldiers in Baghdad. Thank You For Your Service brings the war home. This book picks up on American soil, where veterans have returned with scars both visible and invisible to their friends and families. It’s a heartbreaking, enraging book, which is exactly what it’s supposed to be. Holding a sign claiming you “support your troops,” or demanding that others do the same, will never hit your ears the same way after reading this book. Finkel writes in straightforward, no-nonsense prose about life with PTSD, anxiety, mood swings, violent outbreaks, sleep disorders. and any number of other struggles facing our servicemen and women post-combat. Reading this book, and not turning away from these harsh realities, is supporting our troops. Read. Be devastated. Tell somebody. Do something. Pass it on.”