let me start with a big thank you to Marisa Raymond for her generous donation of several boxes of books! That was a fantastic surprise to find at the Asso. Especially the children's books were a new addition to our library. Keep them coming, we're grateful for any English book you care to give us :-)
Here are two books for this week that fell into my hands and seem to resonate:
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives - until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts.
For those of you who've recently resurfaced from an Alice Munro book, you should give this one a try. Less heavy, a longer breath, and a just redemption at the end awaits you. An international bestseller when it was first published, it has become a classic by now and rightly so.
Weight by Jeanette Winterson
The full title of the book is “Weight: The Myth Of Atlas And Heracles” it is a modern, sensitive, funny, and inventive re-telling of the ancient Greek myth of Atlas, who was condemned by the gods to carry the world on his shoulders. Along comes Heracles, who needs to appease the gods himself, and asks Atlas' help to get hold of some very important – and symbolic – apples. An allegory on the responsibilities we chose to carry and the bargains we're willing to make. I find it subtle and thought-provoking, like so many of Winterson's books. You don't read it to find out what happens next, as much as you discover what happens inside you.
Both books are on the Display table by the entrance, surrounded by the ubiquitous Downton Abbey dvds :-)
Stay safe, warm, and inspired.
Your Librarian
Anna
