High of Your Stack: Suggestions from E-book Passage 10.21.21 – San Francisco Bay Instances
confusion (Fiction) by Richard Powers
Astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life across the cosmos as he single-handedly raises his unusual nine-year-old Robin after the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, friendly boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He is also expelled from third grade for slapping his friend in the face. As his son becomes more and more restless, Theo hopes to stop him from using psychoactive drugs. He learns about an experimental neurofeedback treatment to strengthen Robin’s emotional control, during which the boy is trained on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain. With its lofty descriptions of the natural world, enticing vision of life beyond, and account of the wild love of a father and son, Bewilderment is Richard Powers’ most intimate and moving novel.
Ordinary girls (Memories) by Jaquira Diaz
This is both a subtle and haunting portrait of a young girl’s family and social struggles as she navigates her sexual identity. Growing up on residential projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz found herself caught between extremes. When her family broke up and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was supported by the love of her friends. When she longed for family and home, her life was turned upside down by violence. As she celebrated her Puerto Rican culture, she found no support for her burgeoning sexual identity. From their own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyrics. Writing with raw and refreshing honesty, Díaz triumphantly outlines a path out of desperation towards love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be.
The engagement: America’s quarterly battle for same-sex marriages (Non-fiction book) by Sasha Issenberg
On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that government bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional, legalizing same-sex partnerships in the United States. But the road to this momentous decision was much longer than many know. In this definitive account, Sasha Issenberg vividly guides us through the unexpected path of same-sex marriage from the unimaginable to the inevitable. It’s a story that begins in Hawaii in 1990 when a rivalry among local activists sparked a series of events that forced the state to justify excluding gay couples from marriage. At the White House, a president signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which made the matter a national matter, and his successor tried to get it into the constitution.
Upcoming Events
Saturday, October 21 at 1 p.m. (online) – Dante Stewart with Robert Jones
In his new book Shoutin ‘in the Fire, Dante Stewart lends breathtaking language to his reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy – both the kind that hangs over our land and the kind that is internalized at the molecular level. Stewart uses his personal experiences as a vehicle to regain and reinvent spiritual virtues such as anger, resilience, and memory, and examines how these virtues could function as the work of love against an unjust, loveless world.
Tuesday, October 27th at 7pm (in person / ticket at Dominican University) – Douglas Tallamy
The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Important Native Trees reveals what is going on in oaks month after month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death and renewal. From woodpeckers gathering and storing hundreds of acorns for food to the beauty of jeweled caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that happen right in our own backyards. It also provides practical advice on planting and caring for an oak, as well as information about the best oak species for your area. The nature of the oaks will inspire you to appreciate these trees and to care for and protect them.
Saturday, October 30th at 4 p.m. (online) – Achy Obejas and Carolina de Robertis
Boomerang / Boomeran by Achy Obejas is a unique and inspiring bilingual collection of lyric poetry written in bold, largely gender-free English and Spanish, dealing with immigration, displacement, love and activism. As captivating as it is innovative, lively, moving and full of wit and humor, The President and the Frog by Carolina de Robertis explores the resilience of the human mind and what is possible when danger threatens. The story that takes us between a gloomy prison cell and the lush gardens of the President extends beyond all boundaries and invites us to rethink what it means to lead, dare and dream.
https://www.bookpassage.com/
Published on October 21, 2021
