Remember in November - AFPLS has NEW BOOKS
The offerings in this week's New Book Newsletter all have one thing in common: memories, and how we relate them to others and ourselves. Whether it's serious reads about social issues and recent political history, great escapist fiction, or sweet tales from a family kitchen, AFPLS is ready to help you create your own new November thoughts, opinions, and memories.
In the tradition of Rebecca Solnit, a beautifully written, deeply intelligent, searingly honest--and ultimately hopeful--examination of sexual assault and the global discourse on rape told through the perspective of a survivor, writer, counselor, and activist 

Drawing on her own experience, her work with hundreds of survivors as the head of a rape crisis center in Boston, and three decades of grappling with rape as a feminist intellectual and writer, Abdulali tackles some of our thorniest questions about rape, articulating the confounding way we account for who gets raped and why--and asking how we want to raise the next generation.
In interviews with survivors from around the world we hear moving personal accounts of hard-earned strength, humor, and wisdom that collectively tell the larger story of what rape means and how healing can occur. Abdulali also points to the questions we don't talk about: Is rape always a life-defining event? Is one rape worse than another? Is a world without rape possible?
Oates's eerie dystopian novel is set both in New Jersey circa 2039 and in Wisconsin in 1959.

In 2039, 17-year-old Adriane Strohl, who narrates, is to be her graduating class's valedictorian. Doing well in school is encouraged, but doing too well can get you noticed by the authorities in the "True Democracy" of the North American States (NAS), where equality is nominally espoused though not truly enacted.

After Adriane's outspoken commencement speech, she's arrested by Homeland Security for treason and teleported to 1959 Wisconsin, where she's to attend Wainscotia State University as Mary Ellen Enright and be reeducated in the hope that she can eventually return to her own time.

Oates weaves a feeling of constant menace and paranoia throughout as Adriane struggles to remember her old life and adjust to her new one. Readers who have never encountered Oates before will find this work a great introduction to her style, and long term fans will be thrilled by this new work.
A short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. 

Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic.

Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.

Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite's deliciously deadly debut is as fun as it is frightening.
From her Italian American childhood through singlehood, raising and feeding a growing family, divorce, and a new marriage to food writer Michael Ruhlman, Ann Hood has long appreciated the power of a good meal.

Growing up, she tasted love in her grandmother's tomato sauce and dreamed of her mother's special-occasion Fancy Lady Sandwiches. Later, the kitchen became the heart of Hood's own home. She cooked pork roast to warm her first apartment, used two cups of dried basil for her first attempt at making pesto, found hope in her daughter's omelet after a divorce, and fell in love again--with both her husband and his foolproof chicken stock. Hood tracks her lifelong journey in the kitchen with twenty-seven heartfelt essays, each accompanied by a recipe (or a few).

With Hood's signature humor and tenderness, Kitchen Yarns spills tales of loss and starting from scratch, family love and feasts with friends, and how the perfect meal is one that tastes like home.
In Theaters Now: Two Biopics Based on Great Writing
The Front Runner - Gary Hart
The Front Runner starring Hugh Jackman, J.K. Simmons, and Alfred Molina is a dramatization of the 1987 Gary Hart scandal, and draws inspiration primarily from the 2014 bestseller All the Truth is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid by Matt Bai. The film has drawn good reviews even from Gary Hart himself.

Bai co-wrote the screenplay for The Front Runner, and is no stranger to the screen himself, having previously appeared on season two of House of Cards. Fans of political writing will recognize Bai's signature prose and compact, well-researced storytelling style in All the Truth is Out.

Continue your enjoyment of this true political thriller past the theater by reserving a copy of All the Truth is Out in ebook, audio download, or traditional print format today.
A Private War - Marie Colvin
One of the most celebrated war correspondents of our time, Marie Colvin is an utterly fearless and rebellious spirit, driven to the frontline of conflicts across the globe to give voice to the voiceless. A Private War stars Rosamund Pike and Stanley Tucci, and has opened to amazingly good reviews.

This biopic draws heavily from several sources, most notably Colvin's own reporting, which was recently released in book format as On the front line : the collected journalism of Marie Colvin. Other notable sources for this film include Under the wire : Marie Colvin's final assignment and
In extremis : the life and death of the war correspondent Marie Colvin. If you're interested in the film, you'll love these books about a modern heroine and amazing writer.
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System | afpls.org