Staff Picks by Ann

Why is it a pick?

Mention "family vacation" to a baby boomer and you're likely to conjure memories of car trips. And that is the tale Sessions tells in this fascinating exploration of family vacations from 1945 to the 70’s. Why did we do that? Sessions tells us in a book full of memories for all of us of a certain age...

Collection

Adult Non-fiction

Picked by

Ann

Why is it a pick?

Although Zarnowitz is a world class economist, this memoir tells instead the story of his youth from his birth in the Polish town of Auschwitz, to exile in the Russian gulag, and his education in post war Heidelberg, Chicago and New York. He is a survivor who lost much in his journey, but has also given very much back.

Collection

Adult Non-fiction

Picked by

Ann

Why is it a pick?

The Nazis have occupied Italy. Then the Americans do, too. Lucia Fantini who sings opera at her husband’s restaurant is looking for her son who has formed his own group of waiter partisans. “What kind of a partisan are you,” she says, “blowing something up without telling your mother?” This is a lovely, sad, and funny novel.

Collection

Adult Fiction

Picked by

Ann

Why is it a pick?

In 1948, a Utah farm boy dropped some candy bars to some ragged, hungry Berlin children on a flight bringing supplies to a blockaded Berlin. Thus began an effort which, Mr. Cherny claims, changed the world’s perception of the United States and eventually brought democracy to Germany. Written on the sixtieth anniversary of the airlift.

Collection

Adult Non-Fiction

Picked by

Ann

Why is it a pick?

Nell Fitzgerald, crushed by a broken engagement, heads to her grandmother’s house on the Hudson River. When her grandmother takes a nasty fall, Nell stays to help at Someday Quilts, her grandmother’s store. There is murder, romance, and life in an attractive small town in this gentle mystery, the first in a series.

Collection

Adult Fiction

Picked by

Ann