OLLI Reads

Title	The Partner Track
Author	Helen Wan
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Submitted	Joanne Haupt
Date	1/3/2018
The author is a first generation American born Chinese woman lawyer who writes about a first generation American born Chinese woman lawyer employed in a large NYC law firm.  While this isn’t her biography nor is it an exceptionally well written story it has given me much to think about in the matter of minorities in the workplace.  I am a product of the women’s liberation age so I understand, better than most men or younger women, what it means to go new places and do new things.   Is she hired because she is Chinese or a woman?  Is she advanced because she is Chinese, a woman, or extremely capable?  Does she strive to do more than most because she wants to prove women can “do” the law?   Does she become a partner because she is Chinese and a woman or does she get passed over because someone else deserves it more?  Lots more questions will occur to you I am sure.  Would make a good book club choice for discussion.
Title	The Jesus Cow
Author	Michael Perry
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Brooks McDaniel
Date	12/12/2017
A great deal of humor, but serious issues in small towns every where.  When the 4-lane comes through and Wall-Marts.  A bit of a glance at different styles of religion, as well.  Hope you find it a good read.
Title	The Silence of Trees
Author	Valya Dudycz Lupescu
Genre	Fiction
Rating
Submitted	Elly Peterson
Date	12/7/2017
As a teenager during WWII, Nadya snuck out of her Ukrainian home and returned to find her village ransacked and her family killed.  To escape and survive the war on her own, she must make big decisions and learn some hard lessons.  Decades later, from her comfortable family life in Chicago, she privately reminisces on her harrowing journey and the many secrets she kept from her husband and family all these years.  Beautifully written war story from the less commonly discussed Ukrainian perspective.
Title	Healer
Author	Rudy Reed
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Submitted	Ted E. Lewis
Date	5/18/2016
The book, "Healer" written by Rudy Reed about his brother, Dr. James Reed.  Dr. James Reed Practiced Medicine in Farmington for about 40 years.  He died while still practicing at age 83 years.   Rudy was a classmate of my sister Jill at Farmington Comm. High School.  I believe that they both graduated in 1957.  Dr. Reed replaced both Dr Dimmit and Dr Williams in Farmington, Trivoli  and Canton.  If anyone should be interested in this book, I have a copy, signed by Rudy, that I will loan to a person that I know.  foundrydoctor@comcast.net  309 370 4457
Title	Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying
Author	Maggie Callahan and Patricia Kelley
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Submitted	Mary Anne Michelet
Date	2/23/2016
The authors are hospice nurses and though the book is about dying, it is very uplifting and gives a sense of empowerment as well.  Most of us OLLI-ers have been through deaths of parents, siblings, friends, but this book opens our eyes to some communication issues that can make the transition from this life more meaningful and more peaceful for all concerned.
Title	Man's Search for Meaning
Author	Vikor Frankl
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Submitted	Don Wagner
Date	2/9/2016
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
Title	The Murrow Boys: Pioneers in the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism
Author	Lynne Olson, Stanley Cloud
Genre	History
Rating	4 stars out of 5
Submitted	Keith Butterfield
Date	2/7/2016
Tells the story of the legendary band of correspondents who, under Edward R. Murrow’s direction, formed CBS’s pioneering World War II news team, and in doing so, invented modern broadcast journalism.  An excellent history of the emergence of the still new medium of radio and later on, television.  Offers interesting, and to large extent, unique perspectives of the U.S. and the world before, during and after World War II— shared through the personas and egos of those who comprised the first wave of broadcast news talent.
Title	A Higher Call
Author	Adam Makos
Genre	History
Rating	5 stars out of 5
Submitted	Keith Butterfield
Date	2/7/2016
True story of two WWII pilots — one American; one German — whose lives collided and were changed — in the skies four days before Christmas 1943.  What happened would be classified by the American Eighth Air Force as top secret, and it was act that the German pilot could never mention without facing a firing squad.  The  encounter haunted both pilots for 40 years until, as old men, they would search for one another, a last mission that would change their lives forever.  While their amazing story is the “hook” that draws the reader in, this book, written by a longtime World War II air history magazine journalist, offers many other deep insights into the day to day lives — and eerily similar perspectives, hopes and aspirations — of the air combatants from both Allied and German sides.
Title	The Righteous Mind
Author	Jonathan Haidt
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Submitted	Greg Peine
Date	2/4/2016
Haidt's hope is that this book gives the reader a new way to think about 'two of the most important, vexing, and divisive topics in human life: politics and religion.'   His insights helped me come to terms with current political scrums and religious extremes by offering, what seemed to me to be, usable answers to the question 'Why?'.     Future Study Group material I think.
Title	Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman--from World War to Cold War
Author	Michael Dobbs
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Submitted	Carol May
Date	2/4/2016
For those OLLI folks who savor World War II and Cold War history, this Michael Dobbs book is a must read.   Dobbs takes us back to the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences and helps readers understand how Post-War Europe and the rest of the world were impacted by the decisions of Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Truman.   When you read about Uncle Joe Stalin, it's hard not to think a guy named Putin.
Title	The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution
Author	Marcia Coyle
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Submitted	Carol May
Date	2/4/2016
As preparation for the Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Study Group, I have started to read and learn about the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr.    Since his appointment in 2005, some of the Court's most controversial decisions have been handed down by what some historians call the most conservative Supreme Court that most Americans alive today can remember.  Marcia Coyle, the author, appears on the PBS NewsHour regularly to summarize the decisions of the Court for viewers.
Title	The Boys in the Boat
Author	Daniel James Brown
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Submitted	Andrea Wygle
Date	2/4/2016
Great story of rowing team from Washington state that competed in  Summer Olympic in Germany during Hitler’s reign.  Shows real character, perseverance and determination in spite off great odds.
Title	Just Mercy
Author	Bryan Stevenson
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Submitted	Helen Martin
Date	10/4/2015
Even though I highly recommend the book, JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson, and even though Stevenson writes simply and coherently, the book is difficult to read; difficult because it is based on true stories which defy one's possible disbelief.  It is basically a storied report on the criminal justice system in the United States as that system exists in certain localities.  Bryan Stevenson is a Harvard Law School Graduate who has worked for many years defending the poor and the wrongly condemned, and he has founded the Equal Justice Initiative which continues that effort.  The book is a New York Times best seller with good reason.  Nothing in the legal system can change until we are educated to know and understand the problems which exist in that system.  For this reason I would urge everyone to read the book.  You will be hooked from the very first chapter.
Title	Dark Lies the Island: Stories
Author	Kevin Barry
Genre	Fiction
Rating
Submitted	Greg Peine
Date	9/28/2015
When character dialogue in Irish literature reflects the sensibilities of OLLI folks it might be an indicator of a good read started:  “Or would we chance a scone, Kit?  It would hardly put us in the ground, Ernestine.”   Elsewhere throughout the 13 short stories in Kevin  Barry’s latest book , “Dark Lies the Island” the common vernacular of the isle intensifies the descriptions of life being lived hard and OLLI sensibilities fade; “…a good class of pelt…”, “brass monkey weather”, “well, this is a nice bag of sticks”, “fartin’ through silk here”, “strange what comes over as hilarious when hangovers are general”, “ Mo was down a testicle..”, “dogs-dying-in-parked-cars weather” , and one of my favorites, “So that was enough with the mushrooms.  Next thing Patrick took a wrong signal off one of the crustie women and dropped a hand that shouldn’t have been dropped.  That ended up in a row involving a crowbar and a fella with dreadlocks from Gloucester and a three-legged pit bull.”  In many of the stories I sensed a tip of the fedora to the gonzo of Hunter Thompson.  Barry used the vernacular of the isle to expose deeper insights about the varied characters that all endured in their own way the arrow of time.  For me, entertainment.  Please look for an upcoming study group on Irish writers that will include at least one Kevin Barry short story.
Title	The New Jim Crow
Author	Michelle Alexander
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Submitted	Arlene Davis
Date	9/22/2015
Title	Inferno
Author	Dan Brown
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Bliss Philips
Date	9/18/2015
I hope you read this book and enjoy it as much as I did!
Title	Plainsong
Author	Ken Haruf
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Janet Lange
Date	9/16/2015
Title	Eventide
Author	Ken Haruf
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Janet Lange
Date	9/16/2015
Title	Benediction
Author	Ken Haruf
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Janet Lange
Date	9/16/2015
Title	Our Souls at Night.
Author	Ken Haruf
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Janet Lange
Date	9/16/2015
Title	My Thoughts Be Blody
Author	Nora Titone
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Submitted	Carol May.
Date	9/9/2015
Title	The Nightingale
Author	Kristin Hannah
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Marty Sprecher
Date	8/17/2015
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Title	All the Light You Cannot See
Author	Anthony Doerr
Genre	Fiction
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Submitted	Marty Sprecher
Date	8/17/2015
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Title	The Alchemy of Air
Author	Thomas Hager
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Submitted	Peggy Cornelius
Date	8/15/2015
yes, it does have a bit of chemistry but much much more.
Title	All the Light We Cannot See
Author	Anthony Doerr
Genre	Fiction
Rating	One of the best ever.
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	Lila
Author	Marilynn Robinson
Genre	Fiction
Rating	So so good, like everything she writes
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
Marilynne Robinson's Lila, has been nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, which will be announced October 13. There are several great books by Americans listed, but I'm crossing my fingers for Lila. The quiet, intense backstory of a character from Robinson's earlier Gilead and Home, Lila tells of a homeless young woman whose ragged unsure goodness catches the heart of a lonely, much older minister. As with all her fiction, Robinson's spare style and tender (but never sentimental)  handling of characters and plot make Lila a book you'll read and reread. Sigh! It's fabulous. Future study group?
Title	After Rain
Author	William Trevor
Genre	Fiction
Rating	Fabulous short stories.
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	Foreign Affairs
Author	Alison Lurie
Genre	Fiction
Rating	worth the Pulitzer Prize Lurie won
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	Bird by Bird
Author	Anne Lamott
Genre
Rating	wonderfully funny; good writing advice
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	Winter Wheat
Author	Mildred Walker
Genre	Fiction
Rating	reread - maybe for the 10th time
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	The Paris Architect
Author	Charlesz Belfour
Genre	Fiction
Rating	Okay
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	The Nightingale
Author	Kristin Hannah
Genre	Fiction
Rating	a predictable summer read, fodder for a plane trip.
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
Author	Gabrielle Zevin
Genre	Fiction
Rating	just plain pitiful
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	Go Set a Watchman
Author	Harper Lee
Genre	Fiction
Rating	am sorry it was published.
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	The Green Road
Author	Anne Enright
Genre	Fiction
Rating	reading now
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	Our Souls at Night
Author	Kent Haruf
Genre	Fiction
Rating	reading now
Submitted	Jane Hense
Date	8/12/2015
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Title	The Wright Brothers
Author	David McCullough
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Submitted	Maryanne Rastatter
Date	8/11/2015
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Title	Being Mortal
Author	Atul Gawande
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Submitted	Greg Peine
Date	8/11/2015
Gawande quotes from Philip Roth's Everyman: "Old age is not a battle. Old age is a massacre.”  And as my end of life approaches I wonder if reading through Gawande's Being Mortal will bring any comfort in an answer to my question, "Is this going to hurt, much?"  In the first half of the book he recounts stories of both others and himself that detail the current state of old age triage and establish, in my mind, Roth as an optimist.  So far fun is a no show in this read.  There is at least one positive here in that actionable items to improve the end of life experience are identified. That improvement comes in part via a hundred parakeets and an environment like home where you can eat m&ms anytime, help others, and have the freedom to make bad choices. So, what is the answer to my question?  It appears that answer is up to me and my caretakers.  The choice of enlisting palliative care and hospice earlier rather than later ensures the answer to "Is this going to hurt, much?"  will be "not much at all".   More affirmation here than enlightenment.
Title	The Train to Crystal City
Author	Jan Jarboe Russell
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Submitted	Carol May
Date	8/11/2015
Title	German Boy
Author	Wolfgang W.E. Samuel
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Submitted	Carol May
Date	8/11/2015
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Title	Goebbels  A Biography
Author	Peter Longeri
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Submitted	Carol May
Date	8/11/2015
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Title	Racing for the Bomb
Author	Robert Norris
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Submitted	Carol May
Date	8/11/2015
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Title	Creating a World Without Poverty
Author	Mohammed Yunus
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Submitted	Carol May
Date	8/11/2015
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Title	The Boys in the Boat
Author	Daniel James Brown
Genre
Rating	Very Good
Submitted	Shari Dearing
Date	8/11/2015
This is the story about the American Olympic crew team's triumph against all odds in Nazi Germany in 1936.  Daniel James Brown tells the passionate and heartwarming story of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers who never expected to beat the great teams of the East Coast, and yet they go on to shock the world.  This story revolves around Joe Rantz, a teenager without a family, who rows to regain his self respect and a place in the world!  I hope you read this book and enjoy it as much as I did!
For editing contact Elly Peterson
eepeterson@bradley.edu