THE RULES OF MAGIC BY ALICE HOFFMAN

 

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.

THE CORRESPONDENT BY VIRGINIA EVANS

 

The Correspondent is an epistolary novel comprising letters written by and to the main character, Sybil Van Antwerp, a strong-willed septuagenarian. Most mornings, Sybil sits down to write letters to a variety of correspondents - her brother, best friend, various authors, president of a university, the son of a former colleague, and to an unidentified person to whom she never sends her letters. We learn she worked as a clerk for a judge for many years, has few close friends, is estranged from her daughter, and has experienced a tragedy. 

Sybil has led a full life, but the letters indicate a specific episode has left her with long-lasting guilt and regrets. It is a very well-structured book that provides pieces and parts of Sybil’s life. When taken together, these parts come together to reveal a fully realistic person and her life story. The letters gradually get more personal and introspective, leading her (eventually) to closely examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

This is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connecting to people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. It explores aging, loss, remorse, and forgiveness. It is also a love letter to the enduring power of written correspondence.

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QUARTERBACK BY JOHN FEINSTEIN

 

3.37

667 ratings125 reviews

A major new book from #1 New York Times bestseller and sports-writing legend John Feinstein, QUARTERBACK dives deep into the most coveted and hallowed position in the NFL - exploring the stories of five top quarterbacks and taking readers inside their unique experiences of playing the position and holding the keys to their multi-billion-dollar teams.

In the mighty National Football League, one player becomes the face of a franchise, one player receives all the accolades and all the blame, and one player's hand will guide the rise or fall of an entire team's season - and the dreams of millions of fans. There are thirty-two starting quarterbacks in the NFL on any given Sunday, and their lives are built around pressure, stardom, and incredible talent. Legendary bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein, in his most insightful book yet, shows readers what it's really like to play the glory position and to live that life - mapping out a journey that runs from college stardom to the NFL draft to taking command of the huddle and marching a team down the field with a nation of fans cheering.

Feinstein builds his profile around five NFL starting quarterbacks - Alex Smith, Andrew Luck, Joe Flacco, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Doug Williams. With incredible inside access, we get the full quarterback experience...being drafted #1 overall, pushing through grueling injuries, winning Super Bowls, being named a starter on multiple teams, being the first African American QB to lead a franchise to a title. Feinstein shows us exactly what it's like in the locker room, huddle, heat of battle, and press conferences, through spectacular moments and embarrassing defeats. He explores the controversies of a league embroiled in questions of substance abuse and racism, TV revenue, corporate greed, and the value placed on player health. And in the end, Feinstein addresses the ways in which each quarterback - some just a year out of college -- is handed the keys to a franchise worth billions of dollars, and how each team's fortunes ride directly on the shoulders of its QB. This is Feinstein's most fascinating behind-the-scenes book.

GenresSportsNonfictionFootballAudiobookBiography

368 pages, Hardcover

OCTOBER 1964 by David Halberstam

 

“October 1964 should be a hit with old-time baseball fans, who’ll relish the opportunity to relive that year’s to-die-for World Series, when the dynastic but aging New York Yankees squared off against the upstart St. Louis Cardinals. It should be a hit with younger students of the game, who’ll eat up the vivid portrayals of legends like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris of the Yankees and Bob Gibson and Lou Brock of the Cardinals. Most of all, however, David Halberstam’s new book should be a hit with anyone interested in understanding the important interplay between sports and society.”
–The Boston Globe

“Compelling…1964 is a chronicle of the end of a great dynasty and of a game, like the country, on the cusp of enormous change.”
–Newsweek

“Halberstam’s latest gives us the feeling of actually being there–in another time, in the locker rooms and in the minds of baseball legends. His time and effort researching the book result in a fluency with his topic and a fluidity of writing that make the reading almost effortless….Absorbing.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Wonderful…Memorable…Halberstam describes the final game of the 1964 series accurately and so dramatically, I almost thought I had forgotten the ending.”
–The Washington Post Book World

“Superb reporting…Incisive analysis…You know from the start that Halberstam is going to focus on a large human canvas…One of the many joys of this book is the humanity with which Halberstam explores the characters as well as the talents of the players, coaches and managers. These are not demigods of summer but flawed, believable human beings who on occasion can rise to peaks of heroism.”
–Chicago Sun-Times

OCTOBER 1864 BY DAVID HALBERSTAM

 

October 1964

David Halberstam

4.19

5,933 ratings337 reviews

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * THE BEST SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR

October 1964 should be a hit with old-time baseball fans, who'll relish the opportunity to relive that year's to-die-for World Series, when the dynastic but aging New York Yankees squared off against the upstart St. Louis Cardinals. It should be a hit with younger students of the game, who'll eat up the vivid portrayals of legends like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris of the Yankees and Bob Gibson and Lou Brock of the Cardinals. Most of all, however, David Halberstam's new book should be a hit with anyone interested in understanding the important interplay between sports and society.
--The Boston Globe

Compelling...1964 is a chronicle of the end of a great dynasty and of a game, like the country, on the cusp of enormous change.
--Newsweek

Halberstam's latest gives us the feeling of actually being there--in another time, in the locker rooms and in the minds of baseball legends. His time and effort researching the book result in a fluency with his topic and a fluidity of writing that make the reading almost effortless....Absorbing.
--San Francisco Chronicle

Wonderful...Memorable...Halberstam describes the final game of the 1964 series accurately and so dramatically, I almost thought I had forgotten the ending.
--The Washington Post Book World

Superb reporting...Incisive analysis...You know from the start that Halberstam is going to focus on a large human canvas...One of the many joys of this book is the humanity with which Halberstam explores the characters as well as the talents of the players, coaches and managers. These are not demigods of summer but flawed, believable human beings who on occasion can rise to peaks of heroism.
--Chicago Sun-Times

GenresBaseballSportsNonfictionHistoryAmerican HistoryAudiobookNew York 

382 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

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MISSING SAM BY THRITY UMRIGAR

 

When Aliya and Samantha have a fight one night, Samantha goes for a run early the next morning—and doesn’t come back. 

Aliya reports her wife Samantha as missing, but as a gay and Muslim daughter of immigrants, she’s immediately suspected by her neighbors in Samantha's disappearance. Scared and furious and feeling isolated as everyone around her doubts her innocence, Aliya makes one wrong choice after another. All the while, Samantha is being held captive, strategizing how to escape before things escalate even more. Meanwhile, Aliya must fight to prove her innocence in the public eye and save her wife. But is safety ever truly possible for these women even after Samantha is rescued?

A provocative examination of suburban mores, Missing Sam captures the terror manifested in today’s political climate, and the real dangers, both physical and psychological, of being Brown and queer in America.

MISCHLING BY AFFINITY KONAR

 Pearl is in charge of: the sad, the good, the past.

Stasha must care for: the funny, the future, the bad.

It's 1944 when the twin sisters arrive at Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather. In their benighted new world, Pearl and Stasha Zagorski take refuge in their identical natures, comforting themselves with the private language and shared games of their childhood.

As part of the experimental population of twins known as Mengele's Zoo, the girls experience privileges and horrors unknown to others, and they find themselves changed, stripped of the personalities they once shared, their identities altered by the burdens of guilt and pain.

That winter, at a concert orchestrated by Mengele, Pearl disappears. Stasha grieves for her twin, but clings to the possibility that Pearl remains alive. When the camp is liberated by the Red Army, she and her companion Feliks--a boy bent on vengeance for his own lost twin--travel through Poland's devastation. Undeterred by injury, starvation, or the chaos around them, motivated by equal parts danger and hope, they encounter hostile villagers, Jewish resistance fighters, and fellow refugees, their quest enabled by the notion that Mengele may be captured and brought to justice within the ruins of the Warsaw Zoo. As the young survivors discover what has become of the world, they must try to imagine a future within it.

A superbly crafted story, told in a voice as exquisite as it is boundlessly original, Mischling defies every expectation, traversing one of the darkest moments in human history to show us the way toward ethereal beauty, moral reckoning, and soaring hope.