This summer, the Essex Library Association offers a summer reading program for adults that spans the globe!
Register HERE for adult summer reading. By registering, you are automatically entered into weekly prize drawings and the grand prize drawing!
Here is how it works:
Starting June 1, pick up an adult summer reading program brochure at the Essex Library. Read a book by an author from one or more of the seven continents: North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia or Antarctica. Mark your progress reading around the world on your program brochure! The program starts June 1 and ends August 15, with the grand prize winner announced August 17.
Not sure what to read? Email Adult Services Librarian Elizabeth Reinhart at ereinhart@essexlib.org for book suggestions or peruse a booklist tailored for adult summer reading.
The Essex Library Association thanks the following list of business sponsors for their collaboration with the adult summer reading program.
Blissful Beauty Day Spa
Bun on the Run
The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook
Cliff’s Quality Meats
Cooked Marketplace & Mercantile
Essex Nails Spa
Pencil & Wool
Pizza Pub
Riggio’s Garden Center
Savour Café & Bakery
Sayulita
Scotch Plains Tavern
Book Reviews
Here are some book reviews from adult summer reading participants. Share a book review HERE.
Title: Say Nothing
Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
Continent: Europe
Genre: True Crime/Biography
Rating: 5 Stars
Review: A bold look at the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that sought consolidation of Northern and Southern Ireland and freedom from British rule. Its backdrop is the disappearance of a mother with ten children who is believed to be aligned with the loyalists. During the “troubles,” IRA members engaged in murder, bombings and other violent attacks to secure independence. Gerry Adams, the former mastermind of IRA strategies, comes to believe “politics” will be the solution and forms the Sinn Fein Party. Many die hard IRA members view Adams as a “sellout,” especially when he denies IRA membership. This historical account of the IRA, at times, reads like a novel. Radden Keefe grabs your attention and never lets it go. You feel intimately involved with the lives of the IRA members even if at times, you don’t understand their motivation and the role legacy plays in their lives -Suellen
Title: Stone Yard Devotional
Author: Charlotte Wood
Continent: Australia
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
Review: A woman leaves her present life (e.g. husband and career) to join an Abbey in rural Australia. She seeks an understanding of herself and the “outer” world. At the Abbey, she discovers there is no way to escape from real life struggles. She is confronted by a mouse plague, the remains of a murdered nun and a woman from her past who was the object of her ridicule and bullying as a school girl. A beautifully written novel that promotes self understanding on multiple levels. However, if you are phobic of mice (I certainly am), you may want to skim this section of the novel. -Suellen
Title: The Place of Tides
Author: James Rebanks
Continent: Europe
Genre: Memoir/Travel Literature
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: Interesting account by an English sheep farmer who follows a woman wild eider duck caretaker on a remote Norway island. He lives with her for over 2 months learning about her life choices that led to an extraordinary choice to keep a family tradition of gathering eider-down alive and protecting the eider. In addition he also learned about himself while experiencing a secluded area of the world on the edge of the Arctic. His descriptions are vivid. A little slow to start.
-Robin
Title: Defiance
Author: Loubna Mrie
Continent: Europe
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 5 Stars
Review: Loubna Mrie is a courageous young woman who grows up under the tyranny of the Syrian Baath regime. She is inspired by her mother to seek an education and joins the resistant movement and documents the brutalities of the Syrian civil war. As an enemy of the government, she forced to leave her home country and emigrate to the US where she begins to process her numerous losses. A stunning memoir of a woman who come of age who is willing to risk her life for democratic elections in Syria. But more than a political documentation, she shares her life with candor and heart break. Unbelievably inspirational! -Suellen
Title: Cursed Daughters
Author: Oyinkan Braithwaite
Continent: Africa
Genre: Literary Fiction/Magical Realism
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: This book is about a Nigerian family that has a long-standing curse that no daughter will ever have a happy marriage. The youngest daughter who is believed to be the reincarnation of a deceased cousin sets out to overcome this “curse.” There are interesting family dynamics, especially about how our beliefs impact our thinking and reality. A family that is filled with love, loss and deception that you will not easily forget. A summertime read at its best! -Suellen
Title: American Fantasy
Author: Emma Straub
Continent: North America
Genre: Contemporary/Women’s Fiction
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: If you ever loved a boy band (think “Back Street Boys”) this is the book for you. Imagine being on a cruise, partying and meeting your rock star idols. You are no longer a middle or a high school student but a grown adult. Does the music still hold its magic or are you confronted with the person you have become??? I liked the fact that it explores how adolescent music stars deal with their diminished fame and how they learn or don’t move on in their adult lives. -Suellen
Title: The Namesake
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Continent: Asia
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
Review: In my opinion, this book is about the immigrant experience in the United States and how, after many generations in a family, in order to find yourself, you must let go of the previous generations’ ties to their homeland. It centers on the son of an immigrant family and the complexities of navigating life in America as a second-generation American. Through Lahiri’s vivid and intricate writing style, the reader is captivated from the first page. Highly recommend! -Elizabeth
