November has arrived. The month we think about the coming season of giving thanks and gifts. Here are some new titles worth adding to your list of reading suggestions:
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller
In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year and he might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next. But his time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured, and Sven flees even further, to an uninhabited fjord. There, with the company of a loyal dog, he builds a hut and lives alone, testing himself against the elements.
The teachings of a Finnish fur trapper, along with encouraging letters from his family and a Scottish geologist who befriended him in the mining camp, get him through his first winter. Years into his routine isolation, the arrival of an unlikely visitor salves his loneliness, sparking a chain of surprising events that will bring Sven into a family of fellow castoffs and determine the course of the rest of his life.
Based on a true person, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is a testament to the strength of our human bonds, reminding us that even in the most inhospitable conditions on the planet, we are not beyond the reach of love.
The Joy and Light Bus Company: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (#22) Alexander McCall Smith
Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni attends a course hosted by the local chamber of commerce entitled “Where Is Your Business Going?” But rather than feeling energized, he comes back in low spirits, unsure how to grow the already venerable and successful Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Then an old friend from school approaches him about a new business venture that could be just the ticket. When it turns out he will need to mortgage his property in order to pursue this endeavor, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi wonder what this will mean for his current business—as well as their own.
Even as she puzzles over mysteries on the domestic front, Mma Ramotswe’s professional duties must take precedence. When a concerned son learns that his aging father’s nurse now stands to inherit the family home, he begins to doubt her intentions and takes his case to Botswana’s premier detective agency. Fortunately, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are committed agents of justice and agree to investigate.
As always working together over a cup of red bush tea, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi, rely on their tact, humor, and goodwill to ensure that all involved find the happiness that they deserve.
Our National Forests: Stories from America’s Most Important Public Lands by Greg M. Peters
Across 193 million acres of forests, mountains, deserts, watersheds, and grasslands, national forests provide a multitude of uses as diverse as America itself. Welcoming 170 million visitors each year to hike, bike, paddle, ski, fish, and hunt, “the people’s lands” offer more than just recreation. Timber is harvested, lost habitats are recovered, and endangered wildlife is protected as part of the Forest Service’s enduring mission.
Greg Peters gives an inside look at America’s most important public land and the people committed to protecting it and ensuring access for all. From the story of how the Forest Service grows millions of seedlings in the West each year, to their efforts to save the hellbender salamander in Appalachia, the narrative spans the breadth of the country and its diverse ecology. People are at the center of the stories, whether the dedicated folks in the Forest Service, or the everyday citizens who support and tend to the protected lands near their homes.
This complete look at America’s National Forests—their triumphs, challenges, controversies, and vital programs—is a perfect gift for hikers, travelers and armchair readers across the US.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless error.
The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader, and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Soul's Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading “with murderous attention,” must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.
Just like the setting for the book, Louise owns a bookstore in Minneapolis. Indigenous ghost stories, family relationships, COVID, George Floyd protests, and book recommendations combine to give a rich tale unlike any other book by Louise Erdrich. The effects of COVID on small business, local political events and strong tribal traditions are evident throughout the book.
The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World by Tim Marshall
Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography offered us a “fresh way of looking at maps” (The New York Times Book Review), showing how every nation’s choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Since then, the geography hasn’t changed, but the world has.
In his new book, Marshall takes us into ten regions that are set to shape global politics and power. Find out why the Earth’s atmosphere is the world’s next battleground; why the fight for the Pacific is just beginning; and why Europe’s next refugee crisis is closer than we think.
In ten chapters covering Australia, The Sahel, Greece, Turkey, the UK, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Space, Marshall explains how a region’s geography and physical characteristics affect the decisions made by its leaders. Innovative, compelling, and delivered with Marshall’s trademark wit and insight, this is a gripping and enlightening exploration of the power of geography to shape humanity’s past, present, and—most importantly—our future.
A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce by Massimo Montanari, Translated by Gregory Conti
Montanari shows in this surprising essay, all you need to debunk the “origins myth” is a plate of spaghetti. By tracing the history of the one of Italy’s “national dishes”—from Asia to America, from Africa to Europe; from the beginning of agriculture to the Middle Ages and up to the 20th century—he shows that in order to understand who we are (our identity) we almost always need to look beyond ourselves to other cultures, peoples, and traditions.
A perfect gift for thinking pasta lovers! Who knew the centuries of encounters, dialogue and exchange that were behind a plate of Spaghetti.
NOW IS THE TIME TO SHOP FOR THE HOLIDAYS!
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