A Couple of Suggestions

I'm not usually a nonfiction reader, but these books seem really interesting to me.


First, this author is speaking at the Orem Library:

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams

"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams’s mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence art and in our world. When Women Were Birds is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?



Second, I read portions of this book, and it's fascinating, but it was due back at the library. It could be good for book club because you wouldn't need to read it start to finish--skipping around to read what you want and then discussing different parts would work well:

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

With his signature wit, charm, and seemingly limitless knowledge, Bill Bryson takes us on a room-by-room tour through his own house, using each room as a jumping off point into the vast history of the domestic artifacts we take for granted. As he takes us through the history of our modern comforts, Bryson demonstrates that whatever happens in the world eventually ends up in our home, in the paint, the pipes, the pillows, and every item of furniture. Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and his sheer prose fluency makes At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.