Anne’s Pick: Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Set in a northern town called Beartown, this fictional novel follows the story of a small-town hockey team and the outsized dreams placed on it. Beartown is a has-been town which feels like it’s slowly losing ground to the forests that surround it. One ray of light in Beartown is the junior ice hockey team, which is preparing to compete in national semi-finals. The town’s hopes and dreams are being placed squarely on the shoulders of the team’s teenage players. This heavy burden will lead to an act of violence that will leave the town in a state of turmoil.
Ang’s Pick: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Two best friends, ten summer trips, one friendship that could be something more. This summer romance novel follows the story of Poppy and Alex, two friends who seemingly have nothing in common. Poppy, the wild child and her insatiable wanderlust, along with Alex, and his khaki wearing bookworm mentality. For most of the year they live far apart—Poppy’s in New York City, and Alex is in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. Now Poppy has a week to fix everything. What could possibly go wrong?
Lori’s Pick: Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other by Ken Dryden
This non-fiction book is the perfect read for any true hockey lover. Scotty Bowman is recognized as the best coach in hockey history, and one of the greatest coaches in all of sports. He won more games and more Stanley Cups than anyone else. In Scotty, Dryden has given his coach a new test: Tell us about all these players and teams you've seen but imagine yourself as their coach. Tell us about their weaknesses, not just their strengths. Tell us how you would coach them and coach against them. And then choose the top eight teams of all time, match them up against one another in a playoff series, and, separating the near-great from the great, tell us who would win. This book is about a life--a hockey life, a Canadian life, a life of achievement.
Andrew’s Pick: Street Without Joy: The French Debacle in Indochina by Bernard Fall
This non-fiction book, originally published in 1961, covers the colonial Indochina War fought by the French in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 1950s. Fall’s prescient vision allowed him to understand the mistakes in French decision making, and to accurately predict the folly of eventual American involvement in Vietnam. Fall was killed in 1967, while on patrol with US Marines in Vietnam, after he stepped on a landmine. Ironically, his work fell out of publication after his death, only to come roaring back to popularity immediately after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, serving as important reminder of previous lessons learned (and subsequently forgotten). Perhaps history is indeed doomed to repeat itself.
