Fiction Old and New

(BARD annotation below). We will continue this group without a facilitator until we have one and we hope you can join us to informally discuss this book.

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The Heaven & Earth Grocery store: a novel DB115655

Author: McBride, James

Reading Time: 12 hours, 24 minutes

Read by: Dominic Hoffman

Subjects: Bestsellers, African American Topics, Disability, Historical Fiction

“In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community–heaven and earth–that sustain us.”– Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.

New York : Penguin Random House, 2023.

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/6031568?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPXRoZSUyQmhlYXZlbiUyQiUyNTI2YW1wJTI1M0IlMkJlYXJ0aCUyQmdyb2NlcnklMkJzdG9yZQ

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The berry pickers: a novel DB117941

“A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a family, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years. July 1962. Following in the tradition of Indigenous workers from Nova Scotia, a Mi’kmaq family arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come. In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.” — Provided by publisher. Strong language and some violence. Commercial audiobook.

[Prince Frederick, Maryland] : Recorded Books, Inc., [2023]

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/6211068?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPVRoZSUyQmJlcnJ5JTJCcGlja2Vycw

This group currently does not have a scheduled facilitator and we will continue to pick and discuss books as a group.

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The accident: a novel DB74117

Author: Barclay, Linwood

Reading Time: 12 hours, 17 minutes

Read by: Peter Berkrot

Subject: Suspense Fiction

After his wife Sheila is killed in a drunk-driving accident she caused, struggling contractor Glen Garber is angry and confused–Sheila never drank that much. When the mother of his eight-year-old daughter’s best friend also dies mysteriously, Glen’s suspicions deepen. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2011.

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/2275615?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUxpbndvb2QlMkJCYXJjbGF5

This group currently does not have a scheduled facilitator and we will continue to pick and discuss books as a group.

The Fiction Old and New book group again welcomes guest host Sally Rosenthal on Friday, February 7, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern to discuss The color purple DB58842 by Alice Walker.

(BARD annotation below). We hope that you can join us this Black History Month to discuss this compelling story.

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The color purple DB58842

Follows two black sisters–Nettie, a missionary, and Celie, raped by her father and married to a cruel man. Nettie’s letters do not reach Celie, and Celie’s shame is so great that she writes only to God. Anniversary edition includes Walker’s 1992 preface. Strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. Pulitzer Prize. 1982.

New York : Harcourt, c1982.

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5562748?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPXRoZSUyQmNvbG9yJTJCcHVycGxl

This group currently does not have a scheduled facilitator and we will continue to pick and discuss books as a group.

The Fiction Old and New book group is thrilled to welcome guest host Sally Rosenthal on Friday, January 3, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. to discuss “Crow Lake” by Mary Lawson,

DB 59867 (BARD annotation below). We hope that you can join us to discuss this compelling story.

Here is the NLS annotation:

Crow Lake DB 59867

Lawson, Mary. Reading time 7 hours, 39 minutes.

Read by Martha Harmon Pardee. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Subjects: Family; Psychological Fiction

Description: After their parents die, teens Matt and Luke Morrison give up their own university plans to raise two young sisters, Kate and Bo, in the northern Ontario badlands. Twenty years later, Kate, now a professor, returns to resolve past differences at a family reunion. Some strong language. 2002.

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/2325140?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPWNyb3clMkJsYWtl

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

([email protected]).

(BARD annotation below). We hope that you can join us to discuss this compelling story.

Here is the NLS annotation:

Help wanted: a novel DB 121085

Waldman, Adelle. Reading time 9 hours, 27 minutes.

Read by Katie Boothe. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress.

Subjects: Humor; Human Relations; General

Description: “Every day at 3:55 a.m., members of Team Movement clock in for their shift at big-box store Town Square in a small upstate New York town. Under the eyes of a self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty the day’s truck of merchandise, stock the shelves, and scatter before the store opens and customers arrive. Their lives follow a familiar if grueling routine, but their real problem is that Town Square doesn’t schedule them for enough hours–most of them are barely getting by, even while working second or third jobs. When store manager Big Will announces he is leaving, the members of Movement spot an opportunity. If they play their cards right, one of them just might land a management job, with all the stability and possibility of advancement. The members of Team Movement–including a comedy-obsessed oddball who acts half his age, a young woman clinging on to her “cool kid” status from high school, and a college football hopeful trying to find a new path–band together to set a just-so-crazy-it-might-work plot in motion.” — Provided by publisher Strong language.

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5915534?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUhlbHAlMkJXYW50ZWQ

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

([email protected]).

Here is the NLS annotation

I have some questions for you DB 112960

Makkai, Rebecca. Reading time 14 hours, 8 minutes.

Read by Julia Whelan. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress.

Subjects: Suspense Fiction; Mystery and Detective Stories; Bestsellers; Psychological Fiction

Description: “A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the 1995 murder of a classmate, Thalia Keith. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are the subject of intense fascination online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie. But when The Granby School invites her back to teach a two-week course, Bodie finds herself inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5195996?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUklMkJIYXZlJTJCU29tZSUyQlF1ZXN0aW9ucyUyQmZvciUyQllvdSUyQg

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

([email protected]).

Here is the NLS annotation

Dogwood Blossom: growing up Native American DBC 11736

Subjects: Biography of Persons with Disabilities; Family

Description: In Dogwood Blossom, the author invokes a simpler time and how it was growing up in a world that didn’t always accept her. Poverty and oppression are no match for the strong bonds among the members of this hardworking and loving family. The life lessons here will resonate with readers young and old. Adult. Unrated.

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

We hope that you can join us to discuss this human relations and romance audiobook by best-selling Black author Kennedy Ryan.

Here is the NLS annotation:

Before I let go: a Skyland novel DB 111356

Subjects: Psychological Fiction; Romance

This book can be found on Bookshare at this link:

Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein

Here is the NLS annotation:

Subjects: Humor; Family

Description: “After thirty-six years of marriage, recently divorced Suresh and Lata Raman find themselves starting new paths in life. Suresh is trying to navigate the world of online dating on a website that caters to Indians and is striking out at every turn until he meets a mysterious, devastatingly attractive younger woman named Malika, who seems to be smitten with him. Meanwhile, Lata is enjoying her newfound independence after decades in an arranged marriage, but she’s caught off guard when a professor in his early sixties starts to flirt with her. Priya, the former couple’s unmarried daughter, thinks her father’s online pursuits are distasteful but hides a secret affair of her own, while their son Nikesh pretends at a seemingly perfect marriage with his law-firm colleague and their young son, but hides the truth of what his relationship really entails” — Provided by publisher. Commercial audiobook. Adult. Unrated.