Adults & Seniors

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	Recommended New Books April 2006
Fiction

	They Tell Me of a Home By Daniel Black Tommy Lee “T.L.” Tyson comes home to rural Swamp Creek, Arkansas after a 10-year absence. Having fled a life of manual labor for academia, T.L. longs to reconnect with his family. When he arrives home he learns his beloved younger “sister” Cynthia Jane has died, and no one will tell him how it happened. A mesmerizing and shocking novel about family secrets and their consequences. Spies By Marcel Beyer The unnamed narrator of Spies pieces together the complex history of his estranged grandfather’s life as part of a “game” he shares with his three cousins. The cousins eventually learn their grandfather took a second wife who was determined to destroy all her husband’s memories of his first wife, and to stop any communication among his children and their children (the cousins). The cousins seek to recover their own history, thus becoming “spies” observing and speculating about their elders. Did their grandfather really participate in a secret German Air Force operation during the Spanish Civil War? Was their grandmother truly a famous opera singer? An extremely atmospheric and engrossing read. Mr. Muo’s Travelling Couch By Dai Sijie After years of studying Freud in Paris, Mr. Muo returns home ostensibly to practice psychoanalysis in China. His hidden purpose, however, is to liberate his university sweetheart who is now a political prisoner. A comic-romantic quest for true love from the author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
Non-Fiction

	The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century By Steven Watts A gripping and well-balanced examination of the life of Henry Ford. In 1898, Ford invented the prototype of his Model A car, secured investors to set up a business, and established the first unit of what would become the Ford Motor Company. Watts skillfully traces Ford’s rise to fame and the innovations he brought to the workplace, such as the “five-dollar” workday, which doubled factory workers’ salaries. Caring for Your Parents: The Complete AARP Guide By Hugh Delehanty and Elinor Ginzler A straightforward and useful guide filled with recommendations from AARP’s staff of experts. Included are tips on how to locate quality health care, how to avoid consumer scams, how to design your parent’s house to make it more elder-friendly, and information on self-care for the caregiver. Also included in each chapter is a resource guide which lists help lines, websites, and consumer action groups. Apple’s America: The Discriminating Traveler’s Guide to 40 Great Cities in the United States and Canada By R.W. Apple Apple explores the landmarks, architecture, business, culture, and food of his forty favorite cities in North America. Written in a conversational tone with more emphasis on city character and less on the best shopping districts, this is a refreshingly nontraditional travel guide.