Welcome to Browsing Books!
We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype system serving all types of libraries. We are here to help you find new books, for yourself or for your library.
This season, we continue to travel around Minnesota, but this time we’re learning about all the fascinating historical sites our state has to offer and giving you a book prompt inspired by each site.
We will share six book suggestions to meet that prompt, to get you started on reading new books. You can also take that prompt and find any other book to meet the challenge!
This hand-built house held Dr. W. W. Mayo’s first medical practice, witnessed events of the US-Dakota War of 1862, and eventually served as the family home for another giant of Minnesota history — the Cosgrove family of the Green Giant Company. Celebrate this history and read a book with a medical storyline.
In our show notes for this episode, we link each book to a couple of our state’s great independent bookstores: Drury Lane Bookstore in Grand Marais. It gives you a description, so you can get more information about the book to help you make a decision about your reading or recommendations.
The Second Life of Mirielle West, by Amanda Skenandore
For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.
At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.
As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore’s medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville – the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring ‘20s, The Second Life of Mirielle West is also the story of a health crisis in America’s past, made all the more poignant by the author’s experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis.
The Body: A Guide for Occupants, by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body—how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Brysonesque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular.
As Bill Bryson writes, “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner’s manual for every body.
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, by Beth Macy
In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor’s offices; wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia; from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns; the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous trajectory that illustrates how this crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.
Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy sets out to answer a grieving mother’s question-why her only son died-and comes away with a gripping, unputdownable story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy investigates the powerful forces that led America’s doctors and patients to embrace a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. In some of the same communities featured in her bestselling book Factory Man, the unemployed use painkillers both to numb the pain of joblessness and pay their bills, while privileged teens trade pills in cul-de-sacs, and even high school standouts fall prey to prostitution, jail, and death.
Through unsparing, compelling, and unforgettably humane portraits of families and first responders determined to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows that one thing uniting Americans across geographic, partisan, and class lines is opioid drug abuse. But even in the midst of twin crises in drug abuse and healthcare, Macy finds reason to hope and ample signs of the spirit and tenacity that are helping the countless ordinary people ensnared by addiction build a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities.
The Hands of Healing Murder, by Barbara D’Amato
fter dinner, Dr. Adam Cotton settled in a chair by the fireplace to read, while his guests made up two tables of bridge. Engrossed in their game, no one left the room. And the two servants who were sitting in the hallway all evening, deep in conversation, claim that no one entered the room. But someone inserted a small surgical scalpel into the parietal bone of Dr. Cotton’s temple, killing him instantly.
About the Author
Barbara D’Amato was the 1999-2000 president of Mystery Writers of America. D’Amato is also a past president of Sisters in Crime International. She writes a mystery series starring Chicago freelance investigative reporter Cat Marsala, a series starring Chicago patrol cops Suze Figueroa and Norm Bennis, and standalone novels. D’Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. Her research on the Dr. John Branion murder case formed the basis for a segment on Unsolved Mysteries, and she appeared on the program. Her musical comedy The Magic Man and the children’s musical The Magic of Young Houdini, written with husband Anthony D’Amato, played in Chicago and London. Their Prohibition-era musical comedy RSVP Broadway, which played in Chicago in 1980, was named an “event of particular interest” by Chicago magazine. A native of Michigan, she has been a resident of Chicago for many years. D’Amato has been a columnist for the Sisters in Crime newsletter and Mystery Scene magazine. She has worked as an assistant surgical orderly, carpenter for stage magic illusions, assistant tiger handler, stage manager, researcher for attorneys in criminal cases, and she occasionally teaches mystery writing to Chicago police officers.
Putting on the Dog (Reigning Cats and Dogs Mystery #2), by Cynthia Baxter
A charity dog show has Jessica, a veterinarian, hitting the road with her faithful one-eyed Dalmatian, Lou, and her tailless Westie, Max, for the palatial summer estates of Long Island’s fabled East End. When she arrives, the posh seaside community is crawling with stars eager to take best in show for their beloved pooches. But it’s murder most tacky when a celebrity photographer is felled by a giant ice sculpture at a $500-a-plate fund-raiser.
Unable to resist the scent of the hunt, Jess is soon investigating a casting director’s dream of potential suspects. But if Jess isn’t careful, she just might become the next victim of a killer determined to prove she’s barking up the wrong tree.
Post-op and Potions: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Midlife Medicine Book 1), by Amorette Anderson
On her fiftieth birthday, Grace uttered a plea to the universe. As the saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for’…
For the first time in years, traveling nurse Grace Littleton is out of work. Her on-again off-again boyfriend is with a younger woman, and her only son has just jetted off to Europe. Alone, unemployed, and unsatisfied, Grace is on a search for something more.
A magical village in the Vermont countryside seems to hold some answers…
…and a few major problems to boot. Hypnotized squirrels attacked an elderly gentleman in town. Who brainwashed the critters? Then there’s the devilishly handsome bookstore owner who won’t give Grace the time of day.
With her pit bull Lucky at her side, Grace tackles the problems one by one — not because she wants to, but because she really has no other options. For Grace, the end of the line is in Covenstead, Vermont.
CONCLUSION:
Thanks for joining us! We’ll be back next week with a look at the next historic site and the next book prompt!