The Church Library has some wonderful new books for you to check out. Here are the titles that have been spotlighted over the last month.

For Adults

• A Mercy is Toni Morrison’s account of lost innocence and fractured dreams of a young slave girl in 1680s Maryland. It reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery and a disturbing story of a mother and daughter.
• This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel is a novel about a family and their revelations, transformations, through fairy tales. It is a wonderfully written book about a very challenging relevant topic that is handled with wisdom and humor.
• Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. This is a novel about remembrance.  It focuses on Trudy who was a little girl living with her mother near a concentration camp in Germany and how she unearths the truth about her mother. It is also a story about what her mother had to do in order to save both of them during the war.
• Jennifer Chiaverini’s Resistance Women focuses on 5 women in Berlin and their roles in the German Resistance. Four of the women are based on real people and events in their lives. The book ranges from late 1920s through the early 1940s and follows the rise of Hitler; how he came into power and why the resistance was not as successful as possible.
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is an important book for anyone to read about the limits of medicine and how to live to the last with autonomy, dignity and joy. He has beautifully written a book about aging and death and the need to change them into a human problem not a medical one.
• How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland has reflections on life final chapter.
• The Healing Heart by Norman Cousins is an early work on the need for the physician to focus on the human aspect of the patient instead of the technical aspects of the disease.
• Still With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen is about a woman photographer who moves from the city to the country when her career slides. It is a funny and moving book of unexpected love.
• After Life by Alice Marie Johnson with Nancy French is an inspiring memoir of faith in which Alice talks about her journey to forgiveness. It offers an intimate picture of America’s crisis of mass incarceration. While incarcerated for dealing cocaine she became an ordained minister who used her time there to improve her fellow prisoners’ lives.
• The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is about an “outlier” who is a person whose achievements fall beyond normal experience. Gladwell explores their culture, family, generation and odd experiences in their upbringing to understand why they are so successful.
• Without Reservation: Benjamin Reifel and American Indian Acculturation by Sean J. Flynn tells of Benjamin Reifel, the first Lakota to serve in the US Congress. He made a career of bridging the two cultures. Flynn writes about the lives of 20th century Indians by showcasing the life of a man who prospered in American mainstream without losing his Native American culture.
• All Our Relatives by Paul Goble tells of how “All my relatives” is an often repeated phrase in the Lakota culture that acknowledges we and all things in nature share in creation. Goble teaches us that people are among, not above, all creatures and cannot live without learning from their lessons.
• The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg is about a married woman who travels across the country to find her inner self. It is a humorous book about resilience, loneliness, love and hope.
• The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg, is about a widow who moves to a small town to create a new life where she finds pleasures in simple daily routines.
• The Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg is a deeply moving story that is rich in the understanding of the inner truths of four women. These truths are woven into tapestry that connects all of us.
• House, by Tracy Kidder published in 1985 is a classic book about the process of building a custom house. It follows the construction of a house from the first glimmer of the idea of building, through the planning and construction to moving in. Kidder does this through the lives of the people who are involved in the process as well as social history of building. It is a wonderful book for anyone who has built a house or thinks they might want to.
• Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder published in 2003 is about Dr. Paul Farmer who is an infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist and international public health leader. He changes minds and health practices from Haiti, Cuba, Peru and Russia. This book will change how you see the world.
• For Children
• A Child’s Treasury of Beatrix Potter which has 9 of her best loved stories. These stories range from The Tale of Peter Rabbit to The Story of the Fierce Bad Rabbit as well as stories about Mr. Jeremey Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Squirrel Nutkin and Tom Kitten.
• G is for Goat by Patricia Polacco. It teaches the alphabet through a story about a billy goat.
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost is another beautiful book that is illustrated by Susan Jeffers. Its elegance and magic is a perfect way to introduce children to great literature and will be enjoyed by children of all ages.
• The History of Making Books is a Scholastic Voyages of Discovery book. It begins with the earliest books using clay and papyrus and bamboo, silk and paper in Asia through the revolution of the printing press to how colorful books are made. It also covers the history of selling books, libraries and the evolution of children’s books.
• Muskrat and Skunk / Sinkpe Na Maka: A Lakota Drum Story is told and illustrated by Donald F. Montileaux and translated by Agnes Gay. It is a picture book store of how the drum connects its sound to the heart beat of Mother Earth.

The Library is open on Tuesday mornings from 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. and before and after worship on Sunday. Come and check out some of these books or speak to a member of the Library Committee for some other suggestions based on your interests.