Pun alert: we’ve got a few books we think you’ll fall for this autumn. Carve out time for a couple of these titles and leave the busyness of the season behind. These book suggestions are from Jason Lea, Community Outreach Coordinator for Mentor Public Library and reference librarian Cailey Williams.
Go to mentorpl.org to learn about upcoming library events.
Mrs. Everything
By Jennifer Weiner
Jo and Bethie Kaufman have always been opposites. As children, Bethie was the good girl, while Jo’s dress was always dirty. Bethie never questioned their mother, and Jo pushed boundaries. But when push comes to shove, the sisters always have each other’s back. Growing up in the 1950s, coming of age in the 1960s, and into adulthood, their experiences couldn’t be more opposite. One takes the traditional family route, and the other joins the counterculture of the day. Follow these very different women on their journeys through life, love, good times and bad, and see that no matter what happens, they have each other.
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
By Phaedra Patrick
Arthur Pepper, 69, is a quiet man focused on his routines. While cleaning out his late wife’s things, Arthur discovers a charm bracelet he’s never seen before, a hint to his wife’s life before they married. Stepping entirely out of his comfort zone, Arthur goes on a journey to discover the hidden stories behind these charms, taking him to Paris, London and even India, where he learns more than he ever wanted to know about both his wife and himself.
The Keeper of Lost Things
By Ruth Hogan
Forty years ago, Anthony Peardew lost a beloved keepsake. Since then, Anthony has become the keeper of lost things, gathering the lost items he finds on the bus, in the park, on the street, carefully documenting and saving them in case their owners ever come looking. As he nears the end of his life, Anthony bequeaths this task to his housekeeper, the unsuspecting Laura, who now bears the burden of trying to reunite others with their lost things. But how to find the owner of the missing hair barrette? A touching story of how sometimes the smallest things matter most.
Radium Girls
By Kate Moore
At the turn of the 20th Century, radium was all the rage. It was a featured ingredient in health, home, and fashion products of the time. Need a hair refresh? Try radium-infused shampoo! Need to settle your stomach? Try radium vitamins! Before the world knew of its dangers, radium was everywhere. This non-fiction book tells the tale of the women who were tasked with painting radium onto products. Women who were told not only was radium safe, it was good for them. Little did anyone know the toll it would take.
The Girls in the Picture
By Melanie Benjamin
Hollywood was the place to be in 1914. Silent films were a huge business and growing by the day. Young writer Frances Marion was struggling to be taken seriously in the man’s world when she met America’s sweetheart Mary Pickford. Pickford, a vivacious talent on the rise, and Marion would take Hollywood by storm. In a time when women were expected to simply do as a man said, these women broke the mold. Their tumultuous friendship through Hollywood’s and the world’s changes is a dramatic tale worthy of the screen.
Stories of Ohio
By William Dean Howells
This book about Ohio’s history is, itself, a historical object. William Dean Howells wrote this as a history primer for schoolchildren at the beginning of the 20th Century. It was re-released this year by Belt Publishing. Even though the state was barely a century old, Ohio had established itself as the home of Civil War generals and presidents. Howells name checks and offers a few pages of hagiography to the Grants, Sheridans, Garfields and Harrisons of the world. Ultimately, Howells captures a state in flux. He reaches back to Serpent Mound and forward to his present.
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civil Life
By Eric Klinenberg
Does life seem less civil to you now? Are people more fractious? Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at New York University, would agree with you. In his book, he explains how public infrastructure like parks, gardens and — yes, libraries — can bring disparate people together, strengthen neighborhoods and unite communities.
