Book Recommendations

Books We Love!

Bethany Schmidt Book Recommendations, General

Dear Reader,

‘Tis the season of love and as a special treat, we’ve compiled a list of books about love that we love that we’d love to share with you (too much love in one sentence—never!). We hope you find reading inspiration from our picks and that you share your love of reading with others on this loveliest of days.

Happy Valentine’s Day,
Your friends at BHML

Jen’s picks for adults:

The Rosie Project by Graeme C. Simsion – A hilarious and heartwarming love story!

Seven Husbands of Evelyn HugoThe Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Reid Jenkins – A  tug-on-your-heartstrings story of finding real & lasting love set in the glitz and glamor of Hollywood’s heyday.  Full of unexpected twists, romantic entanglements, and betrayals that will keep you turning the pages!

Beach Read by Emily Henry – A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Jen’s picks for Kids:

Love Around the WorldLove Around the World: Family and Friendship Across the Globe by Alli Brydon – Beautifully illustrated picture book about how love is expressed in different cultures and countries all around the world.

I Love You Already by Jory John & Benji Davies – A Fun picture book that highlights the love between two friends.

Love book coverLove by Matt De La Pena and Loren Long – Lyrical, soothing, and inspirational.  Explores love from the beginning of life throughout childhood and beyond.  Beautifully written and illustrated!

Bethany’s picks

Something WilderSomething Wilder by Christina Lauren – A light, fun adventure with a heartwarming romance at its core; “Romancing the Stone” but in book form!

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman – Classic Rom-Com-Nov (Romantic Comedy Novel—yes, I did just make that up) with a twist…your celebrity crush has a crush on you!

Big FriendshipBig Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman – Written by two best friends, this book celebrates the love we share in our closest friendships.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner – Love stories aren’t just for lovers. This beautiful and touching memoir centers around the author’s relationship with her mother.

Bones and All by Camille Deangelis – Girl meets boy…but girl and boy are cannibals?! Strangely whimsical and endearing.

John’s picks

Brideshead RevisitedBrideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

As You Like It by William Shakespeare 

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the HorseThe Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

 

Joanna’s picks

Home BodyHome Body by Rupi Kaur

The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

In Search of Small Gods by Jim Harrison

20-Minute Retreats by Rachel Harris

The Love Object by Edna O’Brien

Volunteer picks

KatherineAbby:

Katherine by Anya Seton and Horse by Geraldine Brooks

 

The Story of Arthur Truluv

Meri:

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, With Love from London by Sarah Jio, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, and The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg

 

Shadow SpellBetsy:

Shadow Spell by Nora Roberts

Banned Books by Latinx Authors

Bethany Schmidt Book Recommendations, General

National Hispanic American Heritage Month takes place from September 15 through October 15. National Banned Books Week takes place from September 26 through October 2. So we’ve decided to mark both occasions with a bookshelf of banned books by Latinx authors!

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peňa
Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Dreaming in Cuban
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuňa
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire; Freire

 

Looking for more books by Latinx authors? 

Books to Read for Latinx Heritage Month Penguin Random House

13 Must-Read Books by Latinx Authors Out in 2021 HipLatina

28 Books with Latinx Representation You Should Read Epic Reads

Looking for more banned books?

ALA Top 10 Most Challenged Books List American Library Association

Banned Books Week: We defend 30 challenged books including ‘Beloved’ and ‘1984’ USA Today

12 Must-Read Banned Books By Writers of Color ColorLines

 

Book Clubbers Recommend….

Joanna Breen Book Recommendations, General

This past winter BHML hosted another Maine Humanities Council’s “Let’s Talk About It” reading group on the theme: Re-Imagining the American Family.  The skilled facilitator and lively group missed just one meeting due to COVID-19 cancellations, and resumed to finish out the meetings online using Zoom.

“We’ve all enjoyed each others’ company, observations and comments.  Wouldn’t it be interesting to draw from our individual experiences with books that we love?” ~ 2020 Let’s Talk About It Participant

Below find some of the titles the group recommended. We’re excited to share their recommendations to the wider BHML Community!  Maybe you’ll find a new favorite.

BHML owns the titles in green…place a hold for curbside pickup today! Learn more about Curbside Pickup here. 

Book TitleAuthorReader’s comments
Giants in the EarthOle Edvart RolvaggNorwegian immigrant family travel west by wagon to Dakota Territory. Hardships historically accurate.
Stone AngelMargaret LaurenceCanadian.  Ninety year old woman struggles against being put in a nursing home.
The Woman Who Walked into DoorsRoddy DoyleA battered mother of 4 in working class Dublin.
Beautiful and the DamnedF. Scott Fitzgerald
GerminalEmile Zola
King LearWm. ShakespeareThese are the first 10 that came to mind today.  Probably would have a different list on another day.
Anna KareninaTolstoy
MiddlemarchGeorge Elliot
The Return of the NativeThomas Hardy
War and PeaceTolstoy
First novel of the Paliser or Barchester Towers  seriesAnthony Trollope
Wolf HallHilary Mantel
Dead WakeErik Larson
CollapseJared Diamond
The Cat’s TableMichael Ondaatje
MiddlemarchGeorge Eliot
Tortilla CurtainT.C, Boyle
Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsoliveror any of her books
HomeMarilyn Robinson
People of the Book Geraldine Brooks
Nickel and DimedBarbara Ehrenreich
AmericanahNgozi Adichie,
The Hidden Life of TreesPeter Wohlleben
All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony Doerr
Between the World and MeTa-Nehisi Coates
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s SorryFredrik Backmanor any of his books or short stories
Catch 22Joseph Hellercrazy making but fascinating
The Sociopath Next DoorMartha Stoutit explains so much, especially in today’s world
Needful ThingsStephen KingAhhh, Mr. King, this one is the best.
House of LightMary Oliver“Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life!” from The Summer Day
The Cat Who Went to ParisPeter Gethersguilty pleasure, read years ago and it was just what I needed so it makes my list but not for literary genius
A Yellow Raft in Blue WaterMichael DorrisAgain, right book at the right time
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop CaféFannie FlaggThis is my favorite movie of all time, too.
Kent Family Chronicles and The North and South TrilogyJohn JakesThrowback to high school reading for pleasure
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty Smith

Re-imagining the American Family

Joanna Breen Book Recommendations, Featured, General
Sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council

This Let’s Talk About It series offers a compilation of memoirs by contemporary American writers who imaginatively represent, shape, and challenge our conceptions of the American family. Alison Bechdel, J.D. Vance, Marie Howe, Roz Chast, and John Edgar Wideman share a fundamental interest in the formation of identity–familial, individual, national and global. Together, we will investigate the possibilities and limits of literature to shape identity and to construct (or deconstruct) categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Get the books: Copies of each title are available for checkout at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library. Call the Library (207-633-3112) to reserve a copy, or drop by.

Facilitated by Larissa Vigue Picard, discussions will take place in the Great Room of the Library.

Light refreshments will be served. No registration is required.

Re-imagining the American Family

February 1: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
March 7: Fun Home by  Alison Bechdel
April 4: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
May 2: What The Living Do by Marie Howe
June 6: Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman

Americans have long held a particular obsession with the family. What images does the “family” conjure in the American imagination? What does the “family” really mean in national, social, and political discourses? And how do we square societal expectations with reality?

The representations on this reading list attempt to expand, complicate, and challenge our vision of what constitutes the “American family.” This series exposes readers to a wide range of experiences and perspectives, with the goal of broadening our conceptions of individual and family identities. We will also broaden our conception of the memoir genre by exploring traditional long-form writing alongside graphic and poetic self-representations.

This series offers a compilation of memoirs by contemporary American writers who imaginatively represent, shape, and challenge our conceptions of the American family. Alison Bechdel, J.D. Vance, Marie Howe, Roz Chast, and John Edgar Wideman share a fundamental interest in the formation of identity–familial, individual, national and global. Together, we will investigate the possibilities and limits of literature to shape identity and to construct (or deconstruct) categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

The writers of each of our memoirs seek to more fully understand themselves and the worlds they inhabit. They search for authentic modes of self-expression. Particularly, each writer  endeavors to develop a more complete and cohesive sense of self in the face of competing forces in a multicultural and multiethnic America, where “diversity” is purportedly valued but where difference is so often divisive.

Our challenge will be threefold: first, to recognize the strategies our authors use to depict American identity in its many iterations; second, to situate our own ideas about American identity within the context of other articulations inflected by race, class, gender, and sexuality; and third, to come to a deeper understanding of whether there is such a thing as an essentially “American” identity at all.

About the Facilitator: A native of Maine, Larissa Vigue Picard has been executive director of Brunswick’s Pejepscot Historical Society since 2015. Larissa holds a B.A. in English Literature from Bates College and an M.A. in English Literature from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. She lives in Topsham with her husband and son and enjoys supporting local organizations and initiatives.

A Maine Humanities Counsel Book Discussion
Second Saturdays, 10:30 AM, February – June

February 1: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

March 7: Fun Home by  Alison Bechdel

April 4: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast

May 2: What The Living Do by Marie Howe

June 6: Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman