The Readers Advisory Committee is pleased to announce that Barbara K. Roberts has won our Build a Better World essay contest. We enjoyed how "Sisters Building a Better World" sheds light on the amazing rehabilitative work being done at Kansas City's Journey House, a prison re-entry program run in large part by a group of area nuns.
Britt-Marie is reasonable, punctual, and practical, thank you very much. The best life lived is one of order, no shenanigans necessary. But recently sixty-three year old Britt-Marie has had to make some changes in her life. She's walked out of her loveless marriage and found herself a temp job in Borg, a decrepit town ruined by the financial crisis.
Bruce Cable is living the life he always wanted and has worked hard to attain. He lives on Camino Island and owns an independent bookstore that over the years has become the hub of culture and literature on the island. Bruce is a collector of many things: first editions, rare books, and works by young women. His bookstore hosts several book signings a month and he is a regular on most author's book tours.
Miss Sharon Jones! is worth seeing for Jones' performance in a little country church of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" alone. Her grit, power and will to sing are amazing. The film covers a critical period in her life with her band, the Dap Kings, when she is dealing with intense cancer treatments and, at the same time, trying to keep the group together. Her humor, bravery and explosive talent fill the screen.
As I ponder what to say about this book, I'm reminded of two quotes I like from another; Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone:
People almost never change without first feeling understood.
The single most important thing [you can do] is to shift [your] internal stance from "I understand" to "Help me understand." Everything else follows from that.
Bodine Longbow is a fourth-generation Montana rancher and operator of the Bodine Resort. The ranch and resort are definitely a family affair with her great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, father and brothers all working together. Callen Skinner has returned home to Montana to reconnect with his family, both biological and honorary. Growing up, Callen spent a lot of time on the Bodine ranch and never imagined he'd end up finding love with the girl next door.
Small Great Things is the story of Ruth Jefferson, an African American labor and delivery nurse with twenty years of experience working in hospitals on the East coast. When a couple requests that no person of color touch their baby, the hospital complies and assigns a new nurse. But later, due to an emergency, Ruth is left in the nursery by herself, and the baby goes into cardiac arrest. She hesitates before performing CPR, but there is no way to save the baby.
It is 1974 and Gwendy Peterson is a twelve-year-old living in Castle Rock, Maine. She meets a strange man named Richard Farris, who says he has been watching Gwendy and that she is the person to whom he is entrusting a button box. The box has eight buttons and two levers. Farris is vague about the function of the buttons, but Gwendy quickly comes to her own conclusion about what they do. Almost immediately, she learns the result of pulling each lever, and is eager to repeat this for the prizes she receives.
