the river's end bookstore

O Pioneers! documents the lives of the Bergson family, Swedish immigrants relocated to the plains of Nebraska. Cather’s vivid language captures the beauty of the plains, but also captures the hardship of farm work in the face of nature and the challenge of adaption in the face of social opposition. Published in 1913, this novel still tugs on the heart strings of some of our greatest, and most complicated, questions: Why are we here?  What for?

“History has its hands full,” so begins Joe Sacco on his journey into the Gaza Strip on the cusp of war in 2002. With a couple tough sidekicks, Joe delves into the recesses of the 360-square- kilometer area to dig up memories of Palestinians about an event that occurred in 1956. He documents his journey into the past, by way of the present, with bold images and rigorous research. Sacco's narrative confronts the complicated interplay of memory, documentation, perception, and war. He discovers a quieted emotion that holds great power over national identity: fear. Devastating in its subject matter, Footnotes in Gaza gives a history too often overlooked and gives voice to individuals too frequently ignored.

As a self-professed introvert who’s spent decades dreading both public speaking and social events populated by more than two people, I found Susan Cain’s exploration of introversion both encouraging and fascinating. The author, an introvert herself, interviews a slew of psychologists, neuroscientists, evangelist leaders and life coaches. She uncovers the Culture of Personality – how Western culture, particularly the US, privileges extroverts. Then she explores some vital questions: What makes us introverts or extroverts? Should we deny our introversion or embrace it? Should we feign extroversion? How do we best educate introverted children? Quiet delves into all these questions and more in this accessible, compassionate analysis of this underrated personality trait.

Exactly. Why read Moby-Dick? Nathaniel Philbrick, who has read the great novel a dozen times, gives at least 28 reasons why you should consider reading Moby-Dick. Filled with tidbits about Melville’s life and some of the greatest quotes from the novel (“Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”), this book will make the allure of following Ishmael onto the ocean irresistible. You’ve already read Moby-Dick? You’ll want to begin the journey all over again!

Three brothers tumble, tightly woven together, through a childhood filled with abuse, laughter and adventure into a future blurred by prejudice, expectation and prophecy. Justin Torres, a young Baldwinsville native, writes with lyrical skill and clarity, capturing childhood in Upstate New York with powerful precision. Wild, poetic, stunning and devastating, this novel is a small literary treasure not to be missed.

An emerging voice in American literature, Kevin Moffett has gifted us this touching and bizarre collection of short stories. We follow a wide range of characters as they reach thresholds of change in their lives, from a newly wedded couple stuck in Arizona to a recently widowed mother addicted to lying to John D. Rockefeller reaching the end of his days. Each story carries a carefully crafted simplicity of language, a light touch of wisdom and a forgiving, empathetic portrait of humanity.

 

With seventeen days left to live, Lilly Bere decides to record her life in an old ledger. We follow her as she flees her home country in fear of the wrath of the Irish Republican Army to land on the seemingly safe shores of the United States. Through the following seven decades, Lilly’s experiences prove cruel and devastating, but she proves to be humble, strong and wise. In prose with an ease and lyricism reminiscent of Virginia Woolf, Sebastian Barry has created a perfectly tarnished and imperfectly beautiful portrait of 20th century America. This astounding novel is destined to become a modern classic.

In this unusual and gritty novella, Jackie Morse Kessler explores anorexia in the fantastical, yet unerringly honest journey of Lisabeth Lewis. Sixteen, suburban and seemingly successful, Lisabeth suffers from a severe eating disorder that pushes her to swallow one too many of her mom’s antidepressants, but, shockingly, Death himself intervenes. Death, in the guise of Kurt Cobain, strikes a deal: Lisabeth may stay alive if she takes up the mantle of Famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Barely agreeing, she soon travels the world on the back of a deathly steed, turns food to ash and makes enemies with her fellow horsewoman, War. As Lisabeth learns to fuel her own power for the purpose of good, she begins to face, articulate and heal her own inner demons.

In an anonymous Balkan country struggling with the postwar destruction of both land and identity, a young nurse, Natalia, must cope with the odd circumstances of her grandfather’s death. In a trip across a wobbly border, she begins to discover and unravel the mysteries of his life and her memories. The tremendous power of this novel exists within its gritty myths - reminders that storytelling and whimsy in a world that is not always kind is absolutely essential for the human spirit.

“We are only better for his having been alive.” Marshall McLuhan, a literature professor turned media and technology commentator/researcher/accidental guru, led a fascinating existence, but, more fascinating, is his impact. All the minute factors of life lined up precisely to allow McLuhan to be an expansive mind with a lasting effect on global culture. Without him, Coupland points out, “there would have been a hole in the world.” A biography acutely aware of its biographical nature, Coupland toys with genre while creating an honest, at times explosive, always respectful, most importantly human portrait of Marshall McLuhan. Once I started to read this, I didn’t stop until the end. We can all only hope to have a biographer that pays us such stellar homage through the medium of a fantastic book!