Looking for a good book? Librarians at the Oakdale Library are always happy to offer reading suggestions. And now, a good book is easier to find than ever. New books at the Oakdale Library will be featured on the first Wednesday of each month in the Oakdale Leader. Librarians will provide information about books for children and adults, both fiction and non-fiction.
To reserve a book featured in New Books at the Library, visit www.stanislauslibrary.org or call 847-4204. A library card is required to reserve a book and it only takes a few minutes to apply. Best of all, library cards are free. New customers can apply online or visit the library at 151 So. First Ave. Watch the Oakdale Leader each month for new selections available at the Oakdale Library.
STELLA BAIN: a novel
By Anita Shreve
An epic story, set against the backdrop of World War I, from bestselling author Anita Shreve.
When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in.
A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse’s aide near the front, but she can’t remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.
In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.
WHERE THE LIGHT GETS IN
By Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Many know Kimberly Williams-Paisley as the bride in the popular Steve Martin remakes of the Father of the Bride movies, the calculating Peggy Kenter on Nashville, or the wife of country music artist, Brad Paisley. But behind the scenes, Kim was dealing with a tragic secret: her mother, Linda, was suffering from a rare form of dementia that slowly crippled her ability to talk, write and eventually recognize people in her own family.
Where the Light Gets In tells the full story of Linda’s illness – called primary progressive aphasia – from her early-onset diagnosis at the age of 62 through the present day. Kim draws a candid picture of the ways her family reacted for better and worse, and how she, her father and two siblings educated themselves, tried to let go of shame and secrecy, made mistakes, and found unexpected humor and grace in the midst of suffering.
Ultimately the bonds of family were strengthened, and Kim learned ways to love and accept the woman her mother became. With a moving foreword by actor and advocate Michael J. Fox, Where the Light Gets In is a heartwarming tribute to the often fragile yet unbreakable relationships we have with our mothers.
Summaries were taken from Stanislaus County Library catalog listings.
