Books! Read Them Because a Celebrity Told You To Do It!

Sometimes it’s nice to just be told what to do. In this blog post, I offer you recommended books from a variety of celebrities. Is it possible in our jaded and superficial world that some of these choices were chosen for publicity reasons? Yes, that is very possible. Don’t worry, though - PR representatives have good taste, and I wouldn’t recommend these titles to you if I didn’t support them. They are all available through the Mercer County Library System. If you read any of these books, whether you love or hate them, give Andrew at the Lawrence Branch Reference Desk a call and he’ll try to get your thoughts into our MCLS universe. Or, let us know in the comments. I hope you enjoy them!

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

ISBN: 9781476716763

Celebrity Fan: Barack Obama

Summary:

“The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is 40, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory.”

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

ISBN: 9781609455873

Celebrity Fan: Natalie Portman

Summary:

“Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.”

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho

ISBN: 9780062390622

Celebrity Fan: Suga from BTS

Summary:

“An Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest.”

The Overstory by Richard Powers

ISBN: 9780393635522

Celebrity Fan: Halle Berry

Summary:

“A novel of activism and natural-world power presents interlocking fables about nine remarkable strangers who are summoned in different ways by trees for an ultimate, brutal stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest.”

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

ISBN: 9780375714368

Celebrity Fan: Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Summary:

"A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel -- an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa.”

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

ISBN: 9781984801258

Celebrity Fan: Adele

"There is a voice of longing inside every woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good mothers, daughters, partners, employees, citizens, and friends. We believe all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives, relationships, and world, and wonder: Wasn't it all supposed to be more beautiful than this?”

A Brief History of Seven Killings by James Marlon

ISBN: 9781594633942

Celebrity Fan: Brad Pitt

Summary:

“On December 3, 1976, gunmen stormed Bob Marley's house, machine guns blazing, nearly killing all inside. Marley left the country three days later, not to return for two years. Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters - assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts - this is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from Kingston in the '70s, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 1990s.”

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

ISBN: 9780525562023

Celebrity Fan: Ali Wong

"Brilliant, heartbreaking, tender, and highly original - poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam--and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.”

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

ISBN: 9780593318171

Celebrity Fan: Dua Lipa

"From her place in the store that sells artificial friends, Klara--an artificial friend with outstanding observational qualities--watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.”

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay

ISBN: 9780937611012

Celebrity Fan: Jennifer Lopez

Summary:

A self-help book that emphasizes the power of affirmations from bestselling author and inspirational teacher Louise Hay.

- by Andrew Punk, Lawrence Headquarters Branch