Good Reads: Book Suggestions
Every month we will add the Good Reads Book from the print copy of The P.E.R.K. You are also welcome to add to the list of books suggestions. All you have to do is write the summary of a book of 200-300 words including the title and the author and send it to theperk.mhk@gmail.com. Your suggetion will stay online until the next month.
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
Have you ever really thought about a worldwide outbreak, a sickness that would eliminate most of the world’s inhabitants? Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a novel that explores what seems like the end of the world. She takes us through the sickness and survival of those experiencing such an event. Far more important than the exploration of just an event, Mandel also illustrates the creation of families, the building of trust, and the importance of art in a state of deprivation. In such a place, the past is preserved while people strive to survive and establish a future. With leadership and love, humanity continues to prosper.
The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs is a seemingly lighthearted novel about women and their desire to congregate in support of one another. And, that is part of the story. However, this novel is really about each individual’s personal struggle to persevere under any circumstances and the necessity to rely on and support others at all times. Each character is unique and developed with a quirkiness that makes them like they are your friends too. All can relate to the characters of this novel, and all will be happy that they struggled through the conflicts of the book with the characters. Get a hot cup of coffee, a blanket, and sit down for a couple of hours with The Friday Night Knitting Club, you’ll be glad that you did.
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
One never knows the struggle another person endures. In his newly released National Book Award winner, Between The World And Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates expresses in the most human terms the struggles of his life and of others like him. The book was inspired by his son’s reaction to current racially discriminatory shootings. His son cried, and Coates allowed him to cry. He knew this sadness would be life-long experience his son would have to learn to endure. And, although he accepts the pain and reality of oppression, he knows that there is work to be done. This book provides a first-person perspective that most may have not heard. This book is important. It allows persons without the same experience the ability to better understand discrimination and the thoughts of those who have lived through it. This book is a must read, and is appropriate for this month. There is no other book that will so inspire a person to love others, so that they too may love and trust in others again.