September 2021

472 Main St., Ridgefield, CT 06877—203/438-2282—www.ridgefieldlibrary.org

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. Two young couples, Sid and Charity and Larry and Sally, from different backgrounds–East and West, rich and poor–befriend each other in 1937 Madison, Wisconsin. Crossing to Safety has established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century.

Stoner by John Williams. This unassuming story about the life of a quiet English professor is a luminous and deeply moving novel–a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson. A disenchanted farmer's wife and a widowed museum curator begin a correspondence over their mutual fascination with poet Seamus Heaney's "The Tollund Man" and gradually share details from their lives, forging an unexpected bond along the way.

Nonfiction titles:

The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander. This compelling memoir and a deeply felt meditation on the blessings of love, family, art, and community. It is also a lyrical celebration of a life well-lived and a paean to the priceless gift of human companionship. Alexander universalizes a very personal quest for meaning and acceptance in the wake of loss.

Between Them by Richard Ford. Richard Ford's parents–Edna, a feisty, pretty Catholic-school girl with a difficult past; and Parker, a sweet-natured, soft-spoken traveling salesman–were rural Arkansans born at the turn of the twentieth century. Married in 1928, they lived "alone together" on the road, traveling throughout the South. Eventually they had one child, born late, in 1944. Between Them is Ford’s vivid image of where his life began and where his parents' lives found their greatest satisfaction.

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough. This is the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America's master historian.

Fiction titles:

A Month in the Country by J . L. Carr. Tom Birkin comes to a small village after World War I to restore the local church's wall painting and to recover from the trauma of war.

Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. This is a journey into the minds and souls of two very different men–one of them in search of the truth, the other a man who may have already found it–as they embark on a road trip. Told with humor and sympathy for the human condition.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane. A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, and the power of forgiveness.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri. This unforgettable novel puts human faces on the Syrian war with the immigrant story of a beekeeper, his wife, and the triumph of spirit when the world becomes unrecognizable.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. A relationship blossoms between a brilliant math professor suffering from short-term memory problems following a traumatic head injury and the young housekeeper, the mother of a ten-year-old son, hired to care for him, in an enchanting novel that explores what it means to live in the present and to be part of a family, albeit an unusual one.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. A story of three brothers, of history and love, of marriage tested by disaster, of a Jewish family's struggle against annihilation, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war. Last Night at the Lobster by Stuart O’Nan. A Red Lobster hasn't been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift just four days before Christmas and in the midst of a fierce blizzard with a near-mutinous staff. This is is a poignant yet redemptive look at what a man does when he discovers that his best might not be good enough.

(Annotations from NoveList and BookLetters)

Fiction News The Ridgefield Library’s Fiction Newsletter

Favorites from the Past 15 Years of Recommendations

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris. Someone is telling the story of the life of Charlie Barnes,

and it doesn't appear to be going well. Too often divorced,

discontent with life's compromises and in a house he

hates, this lifelong schemer and eternal romantic would

like into the American dream. Then, against all odds,

something goes right for a change: Charlie is granted a

second act. This is a profound and tender portrait of a man

whose desperate need to be loved is his downfall, and a brutally funny

account of how that love is ultimately earned.

.

Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard. Determined to provide her family with the happy childhood she never had, a young mother uses the earnings from her popular "non-comic strip" about parenthood to restore a ramshackle New Hampshire farmhouse. Married to a handsome craftsman, Cam, who dotes on their children as much as she does, Eleanor seems to be living a charmed life. Spanning three tumultuous decades, Joyce Maynard's emotionally powerful novel explores the everyday pressures that erode Eleanor and Cam's marriage, even before the tragic accident that makes forgiveness bitterly elusive. While told from Eleanor's sadder but wiser perspective, Count the Ways also portrays the struggles of her children as they grow to adulthood and try to understand the dissolution of their parents' seemingly idyllic marriage.

Matrix by Lauren Groff. Lauren Groff has turned her interest to the historical in this

novel based loosely on the life of 12th century poet Marie de France. In Groff’s telling Marie, an illegitimate child of

royalty, is infatuated with Eleanor of Aquitaine from a young age. But when Marie is 17, Eleanor banishes Marie

to an abbey with a destiny to be prioress. Bereft at first, Marie comes to embrace her position of power among this

community of nuns and over the decades becomes a formidable force in making the abbey a thriving

community. Combining the mystical and the sensual and with a slant of feminism, Groff has used her sizable literary talents to unfold this tale.

The Magician by Colm Tóibín. I can’t say it better than this official blurb. The Magician is an intimate, astonishingly complex portrait of Mann, his magnificent and complex wife Katia, and the times in which they lived—the first world war, the rise of Hitler, World War II, the Cold War, and exile. This is a man and a family fiercely engaged by the world, profoundly flawed, and unforgettable. As People magazine said about The Master, “It’s a delicate, mysterious process, this act of creation, fraught with psychological tension, and Tóibín captures it beautifully.”

.

The Ridgefield Library’s FICTION Newsletter– Page 2

(Annotations from NoveList and BookLetters)

Bewilderment by Richard Powers. The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life

throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death

of his wife. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. With its

soaring descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son's ferocious love, Bewilderment marks

Richard Powers' most intimate and moving novel.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. A novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest. .If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney.

In this new novel by Sally Rooney, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations with

Friends, four young people pair up, break up, have wild flirtations and worry about their friendships and the world they live in while pondering their eroding

youth.

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. When a visiting professor spreads lies so that fact and fiction are so confused it's near impossible to tell them apart, leading to murder, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache must investigate this case as well as this extraordinary popular delusion–and the madness of crowds. The 17th entry in this popular series.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. A furniture salesman in 1960s Harlem becomes a fence for shady cops, local gangsters and low-life

pornographers after his cousin involves him in a failed heist in the new novel from the two-time

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground

Railroad.

Fault Lines by Emily Itami. Combining the incisive intimacy of Sally Rooney with the sharp wit of Helen Fielding, a compulsively readable and astonishingly relatable debut novel about marriage, motherhood, love, self and the vibrant, surprising city that is modern Tokyo.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. Follows four young dreamers and outcasts through

time and space, from 1453 Constantinople to the future, as they discover resourcefulness and hope

amidst peril in the new novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We

Cannot See.

For a more extensive list of new fiction, mystery, and science fiction and fantasy titles, visit our website at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org

New Fiction

Dorothy’s Picks

Staff Picks

Elise’s Pick