NPR's Three Books

I thought I would share a selection from NPR's "Three Books" series. The theme is "Three Books To Make You Feel Like A Kid Again," all of which have been selected by Augusten Burroughs. Click here to listen to the segment and read Augusten's entire post.


The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - We have this book in our collection. I remember my best friend reading this book in eigth grade and she was absolutely drawn in an absorbed, so much that she wouldn't even giggle with me in class.

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.



Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote - We have this book in our collection as well. I haven't heard of this book before now, but it sounds pretty good.

Published when Truman Capote was only twenty-three years old, Other Voices, Other Rooms is a literary touchstone of the mid-twentieth century. In this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at Skully's Landing, the decaying mansion in rural Alabama, his father is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his morose stepmother, Amy, eccentric cousin Randolph, and a defiant little girl named Idabel, who soon offers Joel the love and approval he seeks.

The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg - This one we don't have, but if it sounds like something you would want to read, let us know and we can try to get it in for you. It sounds like this character does something that all of us, to some extent, dream of doing.

Uncomfortable with the fit of her life, now that she's in the middle of it, Nan gets into her car and just goes—driving across the country on back roads, following the moon; and stopping to talk to people. Through conversations with women, men, with her husband through letters, and with herself through her diary, Nan confronts topics long overdue for her attention. She writes to her husband and says things she's never admitted before; and she discovers how the fabric of her life can be reshaped into a more authentic creation.

For more information on NPR book selections, visit www.npr.org, and if there is something you find and would like to read but we don't have in the collection, just let us know and we can either try to add it to our collection or order it through the ILL program.

Synopsis information was found at www.barnesandnoble.com