This week’s recommendation comes from:
Following are some book recommendations from the IFL team. From memoirs to read-aloud books, you are bound to find something to read or to gift this holiday season.
Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates
by Jonah Winter; illustrated by Raul Colon
A moving, exquisitely illustrated picture book biography of Roberto Clemente, legendary Latino baseball player, pioneer, and humanitarian.
Recommended by Kim Rugh, “One of my favorite read alouds for upper elementary students.”
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel
by Amor Towles
A beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel. Soon to be a Showtime/Paramount series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov
Recommended by Aaron Anthony, “Just one of my favorite books. Timely because it will be a Showtime mini-series next year.”
Billy Porter Unprotected: A Memoir
by Billy Porter
From the incomparable Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner, a powerful and revealing autobiography about race, sexuality, art, and healing.
Recommended by Cheryl Sandora, “It was amazing. It is honest and powerful and allows us to see the adversity he faced throughout his entire life and the angels that helped him cope. There were times where I was in tears and times where I laughed out loud.”
The Good Lord Bird
by James McBride
This “memoir” tells the story of Henry Shackleford, a young boy born a slave who in 1857 joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive. The story was eventually adapted into a mini-series starring Ethan Hawke.
Recommended by Michael Telek: “As someone who really enjoys non-fiction over fiction, I thought The Good Lord Bird does a nice job of blurring the line between history and imagination.”
Isaac’s Storm: a Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson
A chronicle of one meteorologist’s heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude.
Recommended by Carol Chestnut, “This book is a remarkable, thought-provoking account (based on research from the personal writings of those who experienced it and those who recorded it) of a deadly hurricane that coincided with the formation of the national weather bureau (and you get to find out why we name these storms).”