Westport Public Library: New & Recommended

Speaking of Books Collection for Adults

To reserve multiple copies of a SPEAKING OF BOOKS title or to request multiple copies of another title on interlibrary loan, contact Susan Madeo at smadeo@westportlibrary.org or 291-4821.

For additional research about the author or title being discussed, contact Marta Campbell 291-4842.

AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton	Classic story of a 19th century love affair between a married New Yorker and a European woman; upper class culture portrayed with all its rigid society rules.
AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon	Two cousins weave their talents into the first comic book using all the sights and sounds of 1939 New York City in this lyric and stylish take on good (Sammy & Joe) vs. evil (Hitler).
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Earle Stenger	Four generations in the life of an American pioneer family come alive as a wheel-chair- bound retired historian sets out to research his ancestors. Set in the West, this Pulitzer Prize winning book uncovers the dark corners of life in a compelling story told in the bold language of the strong people who are portrayed.
ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan	A personal story of family betrayal and loss and ultimately, guilt and redemption. The thirteen- year-old heroine tells a lie that sets events in motion. The setting is class conscious England during WWII. Alternate endings emphasize the themes of shame and absolution.
AVA'S MAN by Rick Bragg	A tribute to the grandfather he never knew, Bragg limns life in the Appalachians during the Great Depression and honors a backwoods legend who had a talent for using whatever life presented to create indomitable joy.
BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWN UPS by Anne Tyler	Thirty years enfolded in her husband’s family have dimmed the idealism and ambitions of Baltimore matron Rebecca. She resolves to set things right in this engaging family story.
BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS by Dai Sijie	Two teenage boys are sent for re-education during the Cultural Revolution. They discover a cache of Western classics which strongly impact their lives. Reading Balzac to his lover, the Little Seamstress, one of the boys transforms her life. A classic story with a finely wrought new touch.
BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg	Spelling bees, mysticism and mental illness take over a "normal" family, as a nine-year-old reveals her quirky story of discovering her gift of spelling and how it affects the rest of her family.
BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett	An opera singer is held hostage with others in a mansion in South America. Her daily singing becomes the constant beauty in a situation of harsh reality. Boundaries between hostages and terrorists blur as the story builds to an unexpected crescendo.
BELOVED by Toni Morrison	Slavery is the subject of Sethe’s dilemma. Freed but unable to leave her old life behind, she grieves for her unnamed deceased baby, her Beloved. A modern classic.
BEOWULF translated by Seamus Heaney	The Old English epic is translated to reflect the English spoken today. Monstrous encounters, hard-won victories, and final exhaustion. A powerful reconstruction of a barbaric world.
BIRD ARTIST by Howard Norman	Centered around a young man, the bird artist, in Witless Bay, Newfoundland, this beautiful tale examines the power of emotion and creativity in a desolate setting where life and death go on and the outside world beckons.
BREATH EYES MEMORY by Edwidge Danticat	Scenes from a life that starts in rural, carefree Haiti, then continues in New York City, where ugly reality intrudes.
BRICK LANE by Monica Ali	The immigrant milieu of East London comes to life as Bangladesh-born, Muslim housewife Nazneen is portrayed with empathy and joy.
COLD MOUNTAIN: A NOVEL by Charles Frazier	A Civil War soldier leaves his hospital bed to walk home to his beloved, who is trying to survive. War rages around then in this elegant account of the agrarian life and the social milieu of the 1860's. A National Book Award winner.
COLOR OF WATER: A BLACK MAN’S TRIBUTE TO HIS WHITE MOTHER by James McBride	Loving memoir by one of 12 children whose mother fled from Poland to the United States, married a man in Harlem, founded a church and put all 12 children through college.
CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen	Five vastly different family members tell what is happening as the head of house succumbs to Alzheimer's disease. Three children rebel against their parents' Midwestern values, while the mother tries to take control of a life she had never before controlled.
CROSSING TO SAFETY by Wallace Stegner	Two young couples meet during the Depression and form an instant and lifelong friendship.
CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN NIGHTTIME by Mark Hadon	Fearful of interacting with others, 15-year-old Christopher- mathematically gifted and autistic- decides to investigate the murder of his neighbor’s dog, which leads him to the facts of his parents’ failed marriage. Without emotion, Christopher confronts the emotional truths he finds with his very literal perception.
DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY by Erik Larson	It’s the 1893 World’s Fair and two men – one a creative genius and one a mass murderer-turn the dazzling fairgrounds into scenes of their own indulgences. Real life good and evil!
DREAMS OF MY RUSSIAN SUMMER by Andrei Makine	Impressionistic tales of fantastic memories of France and sorrowful realities of Russia blend in a beautifully written novel.
EAT PRAY LOVE: ONE WOMAN’S SEARCH FOR EVERYTHING ACROSS ITALY, INDIA AND INDONESIA by Elizabeth Gilbert	Witty and spiritual memoir in the intelligent voice of a thirty-something woman looking to bounce back from the depression and loneliness of divorce. A timeless quest in a contemporary telling.
EMPIRE FALLS by Richard Russo	Small-town life as lived by Miles Roby with all its betrayals, self-deceptions, false hopes and genuine desires. Empire Falls is a dying town, but the dramas of family life go on. Russo paints detailed portraits of both the town itself and the people in it. Emotional relationships of parents and children and husbands and wives emerge as the story is told. Humanity at its best and its worst.
GALILEO'S DAUGHTER by Dava Sobel	With the details of their daily lives revealed in their correspondence, the exceptional physicist and his cloistered daughter are revealed. Not coldly intellectual, but warmly human, their exchanges touch on both the cosmic issues and the mundane of early 17th-century Italy. An original writer who reveres history and excels at storytelling.
GATHERING by Anne Enright	An Irish family at a wake trade warped memories, as long-held secrets emerge.
GEOGRAPHY OF THE HEART by Fenton Johnson	A love story without the clichés of romance, but with the ambiguities and imperfections of character. The survivor of his lover's death from the complications of AIDS, Johnson creates a lyrical memoir of how we love one another, no matter what the age, family background or sexual orientation.
GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland	Referring to a painting by Jan Vermeer, Girl in Hyacinth Blue moves back in time recounting the role of the painting in the life of each person who owned it. Each chapter is a vignette that has the polished perfection of a Vermeer, as the beauty of the art transforms those whose lives it touches.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier	A step into the world of 17th century Baroque art, where Johannes Vermeer painted "Girl with a Pearl Earring", a portrait of his family's young maidservant, Griet. A fascinating story arises out of the historic and artistic intensity of the famous painting.
GIVER by Lois Lowry	Futuristic story for all ages about a utopian world where the Elder holds all painful and troubling memories, until a Receiver is selected; themes of freedom and security enhance the tale.
GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls	In this triumph-against-all-odds memoir, gossip columnist Walls tells all about her excruciating childhood of poverty and neglect. No self pity here, just a clear-eyed account of her family flavored with generous love for her flawed parents.
GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy	Stories of family, race, and class told with sharp observation and subtle judgment and woven into unforgettable narration.
GOOD MORNING MIDNIGHT by Chip Brown	An existential adventure story. Guy Waterman, jazz pianist and presidential speech writer, ended his life on one of the New England mountains where he spent his later years as a well-known outdoorsman. (Biography)
GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows	A series of letters in 1946 German-occupied Guernsey reveals the healing power of words among a group of curfew-breaking literature lovers.
HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood	A monolithic theocracy is the result of a fundamentalist revolution at the turn of the twenty-first century. Each woman is relegated to one of eight narrowly defined roles and she must conform or be declared a threat. The issue is personal responsibility and the courage to endure, when treated as a slave.
HERE ON EARTH by Alice Hoffman	A modern Wuthering Heights with a consuming love and long-kept secrets. Dramatic and lyrical, but not maudlin. An Oprah selection.
HISTORY OF LOVE by Nicole Krauss	Stories within stories, as an octogenarian Polish immigrant looks back at the love of his life and rediscovers it in contemporary New York. Earthy humor, eccentric characters and a convoluted plot develop into the sharp focus of thrilling truth.
THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham	A passionate homage to Virginia Woolf, this takes Mrs. Dalloway as the template, embroidering every facet of the original work to affirm the importance of the original. Three separate stories woven together examine the meaning of family.
HOUSE OF SPIRITS by Isabel Allende	Magnificent epic of family and country.
HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR by Yoko Ogawa	A loving relationship slowly develops between a brilliant math professor with no short-term memory, his conscientious housekeeper and her ten-year-old son. They are bound together by an interest in mathematics and baseball and by their mutual concern.
HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson	Contemporary classic in precise language. Two young girls grow up under the care of their eccentric and bumbling female relatives in Idaho mountain like country.
IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS by Tim O’Brien	The troubled spirit of Vietnam lives on in a small cabin on the shores of a Minnesota lake – a mystery and a psychological story.
IN THE TIME OF BUTTERFLIES by Julia Alvarez	During the days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, this is the story of the Mirabel sisters, three young wives and mothers who were assassinated after visiting their husbands in jail.
INHERITANCE OF LOSS by Kiran Desai	A crumbling way of life amid the adventures of a rising insurgency and terrorist threats; a family copes amid the lush beauty of northeast India in the mid-1980s.
AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST by Iain Pears	Engrossing 17th century murder mystery in which four different characters relate the events surrounding the murder. Intellectually complex with many classical allusions, this is a story of strong characters who come alive with the accurate historical details of the times.
INTO THE FOREST by Jean Hegland	An extraordinary story of two sisters struggling to survive after the collapse of technology and society, this timely myth also examines the meanings of sisterhood. Provokes a second look at the life we take for granted.
THE KIN OF ATA ARE WAITING FOR YOU by Dorothy Bryant	Long a New Age classic, this provocative fantasy takes a dissolute man from his world of violence and ugliness to a strange, appealing afterlife. The dreamlike world gradually becomes the true reality, which lingers as the reader returns to the everyday world.
THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini	Fathers and sons and an unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and his father's servant are at the center of this epic tale of love, lies, friendship and betrayal played out against the devastating history of Afghanistan in the last thirty years. Sweeping, old-fashioned narration of a contemporary subject.
THE KNOWN WORLD by Edward P. Jones	About the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery, the story of the black farmer and former slave who becomes proprietor of his own plantation and owner of his own slaves.
LESSON BEFORE DYING by Ernest J. Gaines	Two young men- one of them on death row for a crime he did not commit- forge a bond as they grow to realize the importance of resisting. A young teacher must examine his family’s expectations against his own sense of what is right. Life in 1940’s Louisiana sheds light on our history of racism.
LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel	The son of a zookeeper, Pi sets out on an ocean voyage. The ship sinks and Pi is left in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra and Richard Parker, a 450-pond Bengal tiger. The tiger dispatches all but Pi, who survives 227 days at sea with the beast. When they land, the tiger disappears and the authorities do not believe Pi's story. He invents an acceptable tale. A Hindu, Pi also practices Christianity and Islam to help him survive.
MARK IT WITH A STONE by Joseph Horn	Autobiography of a young boy’s horrific struggles to stay alive in a concentration camp.
MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB by Louise Erdrich	Old world meets New in this poignant tale of the power of love and magic of song. Erdrich’s gentle voice weaves many stories around the German WWI sniper who becomes the butcher and the singer and the lover of Argus North Dakota.
MAYFLOWER: A STORY OF COURAGE, COMMUNITY AND WAR by Nathaniel Philbrick	The Plymouth colony from original peril to bloody war. Courage, cowardice, savagery and kindness inform this engaging account of Pilgrims and Native Americans and the truths behind one of our national myths. (nonfiction)
MEMBER OF THE WEDDING by Carson McCullers	The classic-- full of the miraculous and tragic truths of ordinary life, this is the authentic Southern coming-of-age narrative.
MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Kim Edwards	When a girl is born with Down’s syndrome, the nurse takes her away leaving her twin brother with the parents. Somehow the bound-together families survive when the long buried secret bursts into the open.
MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides	The very odd, but believable story of Cal, 41-year-old hermaphrodite, born as baby girl, Calliope. Tender-hearted saga of a Greek-American family harboring a genetic oddity. Literary writing alive with the emotions of both the male & female Cal, this touches on the inner essence and the outer changes of the narrator.
MONTANA 1948 by Larry Watson	Narrative by a 12-year-old boy who witnesses the secrets of his family.
MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf	Vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. As she prepares for a party, the perfect hostess remembers other times and the choices which brought her to the present moment.
MY SISTERS KEEPER by Jodi Picoult	Heartbreaking family saga of love and anger, as the younger sister sues her parents to stop them from using her “spare parts” to cure her older sister.
NAMESAKE by Jhumpa Lahiri	Indian American saga following s everal generations of the Ganguli family across three decades. Newlyweds newly arrived in America look back to their Indian family and forward to their son Gogol, as this revealing portrayal of the immigrant experience unfolds.
NATIVE SPEAKER by Chang-Rae Lee	A Korean-American spends his time trying to become a true American, while failing his wife and forgetting his Korean heritage. His success as a spy contrasts with his fear that he has betrayed both worlds and belongs to neither. The death of his son exacerbates his alienation.
NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA by Barbara Ehrenrich	Revealing look at low-wage America that changes presumptions about prosperity and hardship. Clear-eyed telling of the gritty life of the working poor, told with humor, grace, and outrage. (Non-fiction)
NINE PARTS OF DESIRE by Geraldine Brooks	Brooks gives a critical, but respectful look at Islam from a feminist point of view. With a journalist's careful observation she relates some positive examples of females living in Iran, while also examining the contemporary laws there that seem repressive. In telling how the daughter of the Iranian president established the first-ever Islamic Women's Games, she illustrates how the Prophet Muhammad's writings were cited to justify women's sports.
1984 by George Orwell	The classic warning about totalitarianism written when 1984 was the far future. The slogans of the story and the title have become bywords for political abuse.
OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout	Ruthlessly honest, opinionated and abrasive, a retired schoolteacher interacts with others in her Maine home town. Linked short stories tell of her life as it intersects with that of her family and her neighbors.
OPEN SECRETS by Alice Munro	The quiet self-deception of eccentric women limned by this quintessential New Yorker short story writer.
PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf	Understated and tautly written year-in -the-life of Holt, Colorado, this is the story of four families whose problems bring them together. Haruf does not flinch from the occasional violence and casual cruelties of daily life, but underlines the events with the quiet decency of acceptance. A simple story with surprising depth, like a plainsong or a simple, unadorned melody.
PLOT AGAINST AMERICA by Philip Roth	An alternate history of the 1940 national election in which Charles Lindbergh’s victory as President generates waves of anti-Semitism and strikes fear in the heart of every Jewish household.
POPE JOAN by Donna Woolfolk Cross	Makes the case that a woman sat on the Papal throne for two years in the ninth century. As a brilliant and talented youngster, Joan takes up her dead brother’s identity and participates fully in the love, passion and politics of the times never accepting the limitations that her true identity as a female would require. Historical fiction set in the Middle Ages.
THE READER by Bernhard Schlink	Written by a practicing judge, this is an examination of morality. A 15-year-old student falls in love with an older woman who likes to have him read to her. As an adult, he finds his former lover on trial for war crimes. Is he guilty by association?
READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN by Azar Nafisi	Amid the violence and censorship of their Iranian homeland, seven young women immerse themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Vladimir Nabokov. Celebrates resilience amid tyranny and the power of literature.
RED TENT by Anita Diamant	Vivid story of Dinah, from the book of Genesis – historical, feminist novel.
REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro	The perfect English butler and his reaction to the world of post World War II England are the subjects of this tragic portrayal. An existence of repression shuts out awareness and love.
SAMURAI'S GARDEN by Gail Tsukiyama	A young Chinese man is sent to his family's summer home in Japan to recover from tuberculosis. A young Japanese girl and three older people enmesh him in a classic, but unique tale. Like exquisite, Oriental art.
SARAH'S KEY by Tatiana de Resnay	In 1942 Paris, Sarah, planning to return, locks her brother in a cupboard to hide him from the police. In 2002, Julia, a journalist, revisits the day Sarah was taken away and discovers some of the secrets and taboos of occupied France. Did Sarah survive the camps? Journalist Julia decides to find out.
SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne	Classic masterpiece about Hester Prynne, victim of sin, guilt and hypocrisy in Puritan New England.
SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd	South Carolina in 1964 is home to a fourteen-year-old girl, whose biological mother has died (in mysterious circumstances), whose father is harsh, and whose caretaker is her beloved African American nanny. The two females set out to find a better home and end up with three black beekeeping sisters who worship the Black Madonna. A story of an emotional and spiritual homecoming.
SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN by Lisa See	This book is an emotionally charged picture of female friendship in 19^th century China. Wives & daughters, foot bound and in seclusion, developed secret codes to nurture their friendships and ease their loneliness. This is the moving story of such a friendship.
SNOW IN AUGUST by Pete Hamill	Evokes the sights and sounds of 1940s Brooklyn through the eyes of an eleven year old Irish American boy whose friendship with the neighborhood Rabbi- cemented by the music, religion and baseball of the era- leads to gang fights and, eventually, to miracles.
THE SOLOIST by Mark Salzman	A 36-year-old cellist, whose own talent has failed him, struggles with the mentoring of a 9-year-old prodigy. He is summoned to jury duty for the trial of a Zen student accused of killing his master. A searching look at the artist's life.
STONES FOR IBARRA by Harriet Doerr	An elderly American couple deal with love, hope, faith and fate in rural Ibarra.
STRAPLESS by Deborah Davis	Painter John Singer Sargent rose to fame as his model Virginie Emilie Gautreau’s reputation sank. Fascinating art world gossip from 1880’s Paris.
TALK BEFORE SLEEP by Elizabeth Berg	The subject is women's friendships. One of the characters is dying, which sharpens the focus of the story. Talented with words and skillful with character and dialogue, Berg paints an honest picture of men and women and their relationships.
THIS BOY’S LIFE: A MEMOIR by Tobias Wolff	Somber tale of adolescent strife and strategies for survival and self-respect.
THREE JUNES by Julia Glass	Three summers in a decade of the McLeod family reveal human complexity played out against an assortment of interesting backdrops from the Greek Islands to New York. The three Junes focus on widowed patriarch Paul, gay eldest son Fenno and young grieving widow Fern. An intelligent look at family & friendship.
TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finney	A word-of-mouth cult classic, this time travel tale deftly uses historical details blended with fantasy (with a mysterious sub-plot, also.) Working for a secret agency, a New York illustrator time travels to 1882 New York, where he falls in love and decides to try to alter the future.
TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger	Story of two people destined to be together: Clare, a perfectly normal woman and Henry, a time traveler. A dispassionate look at the inner life of an enduring connection and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love.
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf	Classic stream of consciousness explores the everyday reality of family vacation life in the early 20th century.
TORTILLA CURTAIN by T. Coraghessan Boyle	A Mexican immigrant couple near starvation and living in a makeshift camp cross paths with a couple who are L.A. liberals from the gated community at the top of Topanga Canyon. In a tragicomedy of misunderstandings, Boyle avoids stereotypes for a realistic portrayal of lives that are geographically close and worlds apart.
TURBULENT SOULS: A CATHOLIC SON'S RETURN TO HIS JEWISH FAMILY by Stephen J. Dubner	A story about family secrets, this is a biography of a man raised in a devout Catholic family which turns out to have strong Jewish roots. Both of his parents, children of Jewish immigrants had converted to Catholicism before they met. A fascinating look at the discovery of an unknown heritage.
ULYSSES by James Joyce	One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century is an investigation into the nature of human consciousness and behavior. Complete and unabridged.
WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA by Carlos Eire	Exiled in 1962 from his parents and his privileged childhood in Havana, Eire has written a poignant memoir of home and family before the Cuban revolution.
WASHINGTON SQUARE by Henry James	A novel of manners, in which the heroine’s poignant misery is caused by both father and suitor.
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen	Love story against incredible odds set in the circus world of the 1930’s. Historical fiction that turns into an enchanting fairy tale.
WHEN I WAS PUERTO RICAN by Esmeralda Santiago	From the Puerto Rican countryside to the frightening world of New York City, this unique story of individual survival is also a look into lives of thousands of immigrants who learn to cope with a new culture. Narrative biography that evokes sympathy and understanding.
WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE by Julie Otsuka	Eloquent story of a Japanese American family during the World War II internment. Chapters from each family member's point of view capture the emotional texture of the parents, eleven year old girl and the eight year old boy. As they leave their home, ride the train, stay at the stable, live in the camp and finally return home, this shameful episode of our history gains the immediacy of a simple and powerful retelling.
WHITE TIGER by Aravind Adiga	The complexities of contemporary India revealed in the confessions of a murderer whose anger and cynicism sharpen his observations and his philosophy
WILD SWANS: THREE DAUGHTERS OF CHINA by Jung Chang	Three generations of courageous women tell 20th century Chinese history in personal terms.
WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ by L. Frank Baum	Children’s classic story of adventure, magic and a happy homecoming.

	Marta Campbell, Head of Collection Management
	Tel: 203-291-4842	E-mail: mcampbell@westportlibrary.org

Last updated 9/1/09