Free-For-All Newsletter #14

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In case you missed the meeting last night, here's a list of some of the books that we discussed.

Enjoy! :)

Fiction:
The Ten Thousand Doors of January

In a mansion filled with treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels like the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place. But then she finds a strange book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure, and danger. Each page reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

Changing Tides: A Gates Family Mystery

Samuel Gates has always been drawn to tales of brave explorers and far-off lands. But stories are not enough to live on when, in 1612, the Gates family loses everything. To help restore their reputation and seek a new fortune, Samuel, along with his brother William, must leave the familiar streets of London for an uncertain world — the Americas.

Sourdough

Lois Clary, a software engineer, learns how to bake with her brothers' sourdough starter. When she applies to sell her wares in the Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?

Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I

England is at war. As Evie watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas, depart for the front, she believes — as everyone does — that it will be over by Christmas. But Evie and Thomas are in for a surprise. Frustrated by life as a privileged young lady, Evie longs to play a greater part in the conflict — but how?

Station Eleven: A Novel

Set in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

The Hate U Give

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a novel about one sixteen-year-old girl's struggle for justice. Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. But what Starr does or does not say could destroy her community and her life.

The Island of Sea Women

Women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. A story of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them, The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives.

The Lacuna

In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

The Land of Laughs

Schoolteacher Thomas Abbey, the unsure son of a film star, doesn't know who he is or what he wants — in life, in love, or in his relationship with the strange and intense Saxony Gardner. What he does know is that nothing has touched him so deeply as the novels of Marshall France, a reclusive author of children's tales who died at forty-four, so Thomas and Saxony set out to meet France's family and write his biography.

The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller about... 

1) a famous painter who shoots her husband five times in the face 

2) her vow of silence after-the-fact, and 

3) the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Eddie is an old man who has lived an uninspired life. When he dies and finds himself in the afterlife, he learns that heaven is not a destination, but a place where your life is explained to you by five people. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"

Bird Box

Malorie and her two children dream of fleeing to a safe place, but something is out there. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. But now that the kids are old enough, it's time to make the twenty-mile trek in a rowboat, blindfolded, with nothing to rely on but her wits. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

Non-Fiction:
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts

Therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology and offers a step-by-step solution — a healing process — in addition to incisive social commentary.

Enrique's Journey

In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States.

The Secret Lives of Color

The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

The Daily Show host Trevor Noah was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away... just for being of mixed race. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshaling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, prevent cancer, and more.

Professional Idiot: A Memoir

Whether it was stapling his nutsack to his leg or diving into a pool full of elephant crap, there were few things stuntman Steve-O wouldn't do. As his stunts got crazier, his life kept pace. He developed a crippling addiction to drugs and alcohol, and an obsession with his own celebrity that proved nearly as dangerous. Only an intervention and a visit to a psychiatric ward saved his life. Today he has been clean and sober for more than three years.

When Your Adult Child Breaks Your Heart: Coping with Mental Illness, Substance Abuse, and the Problems That Tear Families Apart

Behind nearly every criminal, addict, or mentally ill person, there is usually at least one extremely stressed-out parent, asking themselves, "Where did I go wrong?" This book presents families with quotations and scenarios from real suffering parents, practical advice, and tested strategies for coping.

The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

We're drowning in data. At the same time, we’re expected to make more — and faster — decisions about our lives than ever before. But some people have become quite accomplished at managing information. In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel — and how readers can use their methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and time.

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence

Work has quietly begun again on the amazing potential of LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. Could these drugs improve our lives? How to Change Your Mind is a remarkable history of psychedelics and a compelling portrait of the new generation of scientists fascinated by the implications of these drugs and the impact they could have on the future of human consciousness.

The Art of Choosing

Every day we make choices. Coke or Pepsi? Save or spend? Stay or go? In our world of shifting political and cultural forces, technological revolution, and interconnected commerce, our decisions have far-reaching consequences. UseThe Art of Choosing as your companion and guide for the many challenges ahead.

Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World

Loneliness is responsible for the upsurge in suicide, the opioid epidemic, the overuse of psych meds, and more. The good news is that social connection is the cure. In Together, the 19th Surgeon General offers viable and actionable solutions to this overlooked epidemic.

Other Recommendations:
"Cards Against Muggles" Card Game

It's exactly what it looks like — Cards Against Humanity, BUT FOR NERDS!

Free & Cheap Book Sites

Pixel of Ink: Free & Bargain Kindle Books

BookBub: Handpicked Deals on Ebooks You'll Love

Book Barbarian: Free Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books

Book Doggy: Free & Almost-Free Ebooks

Robin Reads: Great Deals on Today's Hottest Books

Free Booksy: Free Kindle Books, Nook Books, Apple Books

The Fussy Librarian: Free Book Suggestions

That's all, folks! 

To everyone who came to the meeting last night, thanks for coming, and we hope to see you again next week!

To everyone who didn't show up, you are dead to us now. Lol, jk. Excited to connect with you soon! :)

Hakuna Matata,

May the Force be with you,

To infinity and beyond,

Live long and prosper,

May the odds be ever in your favor,

Roll credits,

Love, 

Trace & Caitlyn

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The Free-For-All Book Club

921 N Woodbridge Drive

Bloomington, IN, 47408

United States


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