here - Town of San Anselmo

Non-Fiction
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
797.123 Brown
This is the story of an American rowing team from the University of Washington that defeated elite
rivals at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Recommended by Linda.
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux
916.04 Theroux
The itinerary is Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town: down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to
Kenya, Uganda, and ultimately to the tip of South Africa. Almost forty years ago, Theroux first went
to Africa as a teacher in the Malawi bush. Now he stops at his old school, sees former students,
revisits his African friends. Going by train, dugout canoe, "chicken bus," and cattle truck, Theroux
passes through some of the most beautiful – and often life-threatening – landscapes on earth.
Recommended by Jennifer.
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund De Waal
909.049 De Waal
Traces the parallel stories of nineteenth-century art patron Charles Ephrussi and his unique
collection of 360 miniature netsuke Japanese ivory carvings, documenting Ephrussi’s relationship
with Marcel Proust and the impact of the Holocaust on his cosmopolitan family.
Recommended by Jennifer.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Bio McCandless
In a compelling book that evokes the writings of Thoreau, Muir, and Jack London, Krakauer recounts
the haunting and tragic mystery of 22-year-old Chris McCandless who disappeared in April 1992 into
the Alaskan wilderness in search of a raw, transcendent experience.
Recommended by Nancy.
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
305.31 Gilbert
In The Last American Man, acclaimed journalist and fiction writer Elizabeth Gilbert offers a fresh
cultural examination of contemporary American male identity and the uniquely American desire to
return to the wilderness. Her primary focus is on the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway, who
left his comfortable suburban home at the age of seventeen to move into the Appalachian
Mountains, where for the last twenty years he has lived off the land.
Recommended by Lanee.
My Father’s Glory; and My mother’s Castle: Memories of Childhood by Marcel
Pagnol
Bio Pagnol
Bathed in the warm clarity of the summer sun in Provence, Marcel Pagnol's childhood memories
celebrate a time of rare beauty and delight. He never forgot the magic of his Provencal childhood,
and when he set his memories to paper late in life the result was a great new success.
Recommended by April.
Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son by Anne Lamott with Sam
Lamott
813 Lamott
Anne Lamott enters a new and unexpected chapter of her own life: grandmotherhood. Over the
course of the first year of her grandson’s life, the rhythms of life, death, family, and friends unfold in
surprising and joyful ways. By turns poignant and funny, honest and touching, Some Assembly
Required is the true story of how the birth of a baby changes a family-as this book will change
everyone who reads it.
Recommended by Jennifer.
Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story By Sue Monk Kidd and
Ann Kidd Taylor
Bio Kidd
A wise and involving book about feminine thresholds, spiritual growth, and renewal, Traveling with
Pomegranates is a revealing self-portrait by the beloved author of The Secret Life of Bees and her
daughter, a writer in the making.
Recommended by Serianna.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Bio Kalanithi
At the age of 36, on the verge of a completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul
Kalanithi started losing weight and was wracked by waves of excruciating back pain. A CT scan
confirmed what Paul suspected: he had stage four lung cancer, widely disseminated. With incredible
literary quality, philosophical acuity, and medical authority, When Breath Becomes Air approaches
the questions raised by facing mortality from the dual perspective of the neurosurgeon who spent a
decade meeting patients in the twilight between life and death, and the terminally ill patient who
suddenly found himself living in that liminality.
Recommended by Nancy.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Bio Strayed
A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a
young woman reeling from catastrophe – and built her back up again.
Recommended by Nancy.
Virginia Woolf; a biography by Quentin Bell
823 Woolf, V.
This first full-scale biography of the eminent British writer, Virginia Woolf, is written by her nephew.
Includes an index and photographs.
Recommended by April.
Fiction
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Fiction King
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas,. President Kennedy died, and the world
changed. What if you could change it back?
Recommended by Lanee.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Fiction Coehlo
This is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a
worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the
markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.
Recommended by Serianna.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Fiction Doerr
When Marie Laure is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood,
every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets of
Paris with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to SaintMalo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives. In another world in
Germany, Werner grows up with his younger sister and both are enchanted by a crude radio Werner
finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite
and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the
Resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways,
against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
Recommended by Linda.
Blackout by Connie Willis; All Clear by Connie Willis (duology)
Sci Fi Willis
When a time-travel lab suddenly cancels assignments for no apparent reason and switches around
everyone’s schedules, time-traveling historians Michael, Merope, and Polly find themselves in World
War II, facing air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel,
V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history – to say nothing of a growing feeling
that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control.
Recommended by Serianna.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Fiction Toole
The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them as he heaves
his vast bulk through the city’s fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity, and ignorance.
But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him. Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his
new-found employment to further his mission – and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart
to do it with…
Recommended by Ann.
Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston by Ernest Callenbach
Fiction Callenbach
Ecotopia was founded when northern California, Oregon, and Washington seceded from the Union
to create a “stable-state” ecosystem: the perfect balance between human beings and the
environment. Now, twenty years later, this isolated, mysterious nation is welcoming its first officially
sanctioned American visitor: New York Times-Post reporter Will Weston. Skeptical yet curious about
this green new world, Weston is determined to report his findings objectively.
Recommended by Maureen.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Sci Fi Bradbury
In a society in which books are outlawed, Montag, a regimented fireman in charge of burning the
forbidden volumes, meets a revolutionary school teacher who dares to read. Suddenly he finds
himself a hunted fugitive, forced to choose not only between two women, but between personal
safety and intellectual freedom.
Recommended by Linda.
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
Fiction Groff
Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the
key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are
tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the
envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more
complicated and remarkable than they have seemed.
Recommended by Nancy.
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Fiction Franzen
The idyllic lives of civic-minded environmentalists Patty and Walter Berglund come into question
when their son moves in with aggressive Republican neighbors, green lawyer Walter takes a job in
the coal industry, and go-getter Patty becomes increasingly unstable and enraged.
Recommended by Nancy.
The Grass Harp by Truman Capote
Fiction Capote
Set on the outskirts of a small Southern town, The Grass Harp tells the story of three endearing
misfits – an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies – who one day take up residence in a tree
house. As they pass sweet yet hazardous hours in a china tree, The Grass Harp manages to convey
all the pleasures and responsibilities of freedom. But most of all it teaches us about the sacredness
of love.
Recommended by Courtney.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie
Barrows
Fiction Shaffer
As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next
subject in a book club on Guernsey – a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after members are
discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.
Recommended by Serianna.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Fiction Ford
Set in the ethnic neighborhoods of Seattle during World War II and Japanese American internment
camps of the era, this debut novel tells the heartwarming story of widower Henry Lee, his father,
and his first love, Keiko Okabe.
Recommended by Maureen.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Fiction Bronte
Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood
charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. When she takes up a
post as governess at Thornfield Hall and meets Mr. Rochester, the two soon fall in love. But a secret
from his past will threaten Jane’s newfound happiness.
Recommended by Barbara.
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Fiction Kipling
Kipling's masterpiece is perhaps the most remarkable literary product of British India. The story of a
half-caste boy, part Indian part Irish who journeys throughout the subcontinent with an aged lama
in search of religious enlightenment, the nominal plot revolves around the Great Game: the struggle
between Britain and Russia for control of Afghanistan. But the glory of the book lies less in the
amusing picaresque adventures than in the unsurpassed panorama of Indian life they evoke:
brilliant, moving and intensely alive.
Recommended by Barbara.
Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
Fiction Tyler
BALTIMORE WOMAN DISAPPEARS DURING FAMILY VACATION, declares the headline. Forty-year-old
Delia Grinstead is last seen strolling down the Delaware shore, wearing nothing more than a bathing
suit and carrying a beach tote with five hundred dollars tucked inside. To her husband and three
almost-grown children, she has vanished without trace or reason. But for Delia, who feels like a tiny
gnat buzzing around her family's edges, "walking away from it all" is not a premeditated act, but an
impulse that will lead her into a new, exciting, and unimagined life.
Recommended by Jennifer.
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Fiction McCann
In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed,
staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is
running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the
streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s
stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.
Recommended by Nancy.
The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett
Fiction Patchett
When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine – who was also
his faithful assistant for twenty years – learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic
accident is very much alive and well. Sabine is left to unravel his secrets, and the journey she takes,
from sunny Los Angeles to the bitter windswept plains of Nebraska, will work its own magic on her.
Recommended by Lanee.
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Fiction Simonson
Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life in the village of St. Mary, England, until his
brother’s death sparks and unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper
from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective
spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But will
their relationship survive in a society that considers Ali a foreigner?
Recommended by Bonnie.
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Fiction Eliot
Middlemarch is a complex tale of idealism, disillusion, profligacy, loyalty and frustrated love. This
penetrating analysis of the life of an English provincial town during the time of social unrest prior to
the Reform Bill of 1832 is told through the lives of Dorothea Brooke and Dr Tertius Lydgate and
includes a host of other paradigm characters who illuminate the condition of English life in the
mid-nineteenth century.
Recommended by Carolyn.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Fiction Eugenides
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and
then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. My
birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s
license...records my first name simply as Cal."
Recommended by Courtney.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Fiction Ferrante
The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples.
Growing up on these tough streets are Elena and Lila, who learn to rely on each other ahead of
anyone or anything else. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a
neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the
relationship between Elena and Lila.
Recommended by April.
The Narrows by Michael Connelly
Mystery Connelly
FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she’s dreaded for years – the Poet has surfaced. She has
never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes and, apparently, he
has not forgotten her. Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too, from the widow of an old
friend. Her husband’s death seems natural, but his ties to the hunt for the Poet make Bosch dig
deep. Arriving at a derelict spot in the California desert where the feds are unearthing bodies, Bosch
joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI… and squarely in the path of the
Poet.
Recommended by Ralph.
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
Fiction Cather
The heroic battle for survival of simple pioneer folk in the Nebraska country of the 1880s. John
Bergson, a Swedish farmer, struggles desperately with the soil but dies unsatisfied. His daughter,
Alexandra inherits her father's farm and must transform it from raw prairie into a prosperous
enterprise.
Recommended by April.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Fiction McLain
Meeting through mutual friends in Chicago, Hadley is intrigued by brash "beautiful boy" Ernest
Hemingway, and after a brief courtship and small wedding, they take off for Paris, where Hadley
makes a convincing transformation from an overprotected child to a game and brave young woman
who puts up with impoverished living conditions and shattering loneliness to prop up her husband's
career.
Recommended by Courtney.
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Fiction Forster
E. M. Forster's exquisitely observed novel about the clash of cultures and the consequences of
perception, set in colonial India. Among the greatest novels of the twentieth century A Passage to
India unravels the growing racial tension between Indians, uneasy at best with colonial power, and
the British, largely ignorant and dismissive of the society they're infiltrating. A sudden moment of
confusion results in a devastating series of events that threatens to ruin a man's life, revealing just
how deeply--and swiftly--prejudice has taken root.
Recommended by Barbara
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
Fiction McKenzie
A young couple on the brink of marriage – the charming Veblen and her fiancé Paul, a brilliant
neurologist – find their engagement in danger of collapse. Along the way, they weather everything
from each other’s dysfunctional families, to the attentions of a seductive pharmaceutical heiress, to
an intimate tête-à-tête with a very charismatic squirrel.
Recommended by Lanee.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Fiction Austen
Excitement fizzes through the Bennet household at Longbourn in Hertfordshire when young, eligible
Mr. Charles Bingley rents the fine house nearby. He may have sisters, but he also has male friends,
and one of these – the haughty, and even wealthier, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy – irks the vivacious
Elizabeth Bennet, the second of the Bennet girls. The romantic clash between the opinionated
Elizabeth and Darcy is a splendid rendition of civilized sparring. As the characters dance a delicate
quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, Jane Austen's radiantly caustic wit and keen observation sparkle.
Recommended by Carolyn
The Promise by Robert Crais
Mystery Crais
When Elvis Cole is hired to locate a woman who may have disappeared, it seems like an ordinary
case – until Elvis learns the missing woman worked for a defense contractor and was being
blackmailed. Meanwhile, in another part of the city, LAPD officer Scott James and his patrol dog,
Maggie, enter an abandoned building to locate an armed and dangerous thief, only to discover far
more than they expected. Soon, Scott and Maggie are targets, and, as their case intertwines with
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike’s, the four join forces to follow the trail of the missing woman.
Recommended by Ralph.
Purity by Jonathan Franzen
Fiction Franzen
Young Pip Tyler doesn't know who she is. She knows that her real name is Purity, that she's saddled
with $130,000 in student debt, that she's squatting with anarchists in Oakland, and that her
relationship with her mother – her only family – is hazardous. But she doesn't have a clue who her
father is, why her mother has always concealed her own real name, or how she can ever have a
normal life. A glancing encounter with a German peace activist leads Pip to an internship in South
America with The Sunlight Project, an organization that traffics in all the secrets of the world –
including, Pip hopes, the secret of her origins.
Recommended by Courtney.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Sci Fi Brown
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his
fellows Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars
viable for future generations. But Darrow discovers that humanity reached the surface generations
ago. Longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to
infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next
generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power.
Recommended by Ruby.
The Rosie Project by Gaeme Simsion
Fiction Simsion
Don Tillman, a professor of genetics, sets up a project designed to find him the perfect wife, starting
with a questionnaire that has to be adjusted a little as he goes along. Then he meets Rosie, who is
everything he’s not looking for in a wife, but she ends up his friend as he helps her try and find her
biological father.
Recommended by Maureen and Nancy.
Saga by Brian Vaughan
Graphic Novel Vaughan
When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk
everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.
Recommended by Jenna.
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Fiction Levy
Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in a suitcase, her heart broken,
and her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received
as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady,
Queenie, raised as a farmer’s daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and
courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues
of his own to resolve.
Recommended by Lanee.
The Soloman Curse by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake
Fiction Cussler
There are many rumors about the bay off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some say it was the
site of the lost empire of the Solomon king and that great treasure lies beneath the waters. Others
say terrible things happened here. It is cursed – which is exactly what attracts the attention of
husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. How could they resist? Clues and
whispers lead them on a hunt from the Solomons to Australia to Japan, and what they find at the
end of the trail is both wonderful and monstrous and like nothing they have ever seen before.
Recommended by Ralph.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Fiction Jansson
This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s
grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the
Gulf of Finland.
Recommended by April.
The Survivor: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Vince Flynn
Fiction Flynn
Top secret data has been stolen from the CIA, and the only man who knows its hiding place is dead.
CIA operative Mitch Rapp must race to find the classified information in this blistering novel.
Recommended by Ralph.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Fifka Brunt
Fiction Brunt
There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her
uncle, the renowned painter, Finn Weiss. June can only be herself in Finn’s company: he is her
godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies far too young of a mysterious illness, June’s
world is turned upside down. Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an
unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.
Recommended by Lanee.
Wild Thing by Josh Bazell
Fiction Bazell
When a reclusive billionaire offers Dr. Peter Brown, a.k.a. Pietro Brnwa, a job accompanying a sexy
but self-destructive paleontologist on the world's worst field assignment, Brown has no real choice
but to say yes. Even if it means that an army of murderers, mobsters, and international drug
Dealers – not to mention a lake monster – are about to have a serious Pietro Brnwa problem.
Recommended by Maureen.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Fiction Murakami
In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds
himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As
these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic
prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an
aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during
Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.
Recommended by Courtney.
Juvenile and Teen
Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
J Fiction Carroll
A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters.
Recommended by Carolyn
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
J Fiction Montgomery
Anne starts out as a mistake. The elderly Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert had planned on adopting a
boy to help Matthew with the chores on their Prince Edward Island farm. What are they to do with
the red-haired, high-spirited girl who arrives instead? But Anne Shirley, with her boundless
imaginations and heart, slowly brings joy into the narrow lives of those around her.
Recommended by Serianna.
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
J Fiction Rowling
In this series of fantasy novels, Harry Potter, a young boy wizard, and his friends at Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry battle magical creatures, school bullies, and Lord Voldemort, the Dark
Wizard who killed Harry’s parents when he was an infant. The first book is Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone.
Recommended by Jenna.
The Miraculous Adventure of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
J Fiction DiCamillo
Edward Tulane, a cold-hearted and proud toy rabbit, loves only himself until he is separated from
the little girl who adores him and travels across the country, acquiring new owners and listening to
their hopes, dreams, and histories.
Recommended by Linda.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman
Teen Graphic Novel
Heralded as “the first masterpiece in comic book history” by The New Yorker, Maus tells the story of
Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms
with his father’s story.
Recommended by Maureen.
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
JP Van Allsburg
A young boy, lying awake one Christmas Eve, is welcomed aboard a magical trip to the North Pole.
Through dark forests, over tall mountains, and across a desert of ice, the Polar Express makes its
way to the city atop the world, where the boy will make his Christmas wish.
Recommended by Linda.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Teen Fiction Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great
simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme
ordeal--a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Recommended by Barbara.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Teen Fiction Bardugo
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price – and
no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist
that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone… Six dangerous
outcasts, one impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and
destruction – if they don’t kill each other first.
Recommended by Jenna.